Mum murdered by husband just 16 days after warning police he would harm her
A mum warned police she feared it was ‘very likely’ her ex-partner would harm her. Barely a fortnight later, he stabbed her to death.
Ramona Stoia, 35, told officers her estranged husband Catalin Micu, 54, had previously threatened to cut her head off.
But following his arrest for physical and sexual offences, Kent Police deemed she was only at ‘medium’ risk – and did not change that assessment following a second interview in which Ramona made further allegations of violence, controlling behaviour and rape.
A damning Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) has now concluded that the risks to Ramona ‘were not considered seriously enough’ by police in the lead-up to her murder on April 11, 2022, inside GothInk Studio in Canterbury, where the couple both worked.
Ramona’s brother, Cezar Stoia, who now has custody of her teenage son, said: ‘My sister foresaw her murder, but the police couldn’t?
‘He threatened to cut her head off. How is that medium risk? This is a high-risk situation. This is totally unacceptable.’
Ramona and Micu, who had a son together, broke up in May 2021 after a 16-year relationship that began when Ramona was still a teenager.
They continued to live together but in February 2022 Ramona secured a non-molestation order banning Micu from ‘harassing or pestering’ her.
Micu breached that order just a month later and was arrested after entering Ramona’s bedroom while she was asleep and sexually assaulting her.
Ramona then made a series of historic allegations of abuse spanning several years.
This Is Not Right
On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.
With the help of our partners at Women's Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.
You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.
Read more:
In answers recorded as part of a Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment (DARA), she said she was ‘very frightened’ of Micu and ‘stated that it was very likely that he would seriously harm her’.
She also told police that early on in their relationship, Micu had threatened to ‘cut her head off’ if he were ever arrested or if she began a relationship with anyone else.
The DHR notes that shortly before calling police, Ramona had tried to make it clear to Micu their relationship was over by telling him she had been intimate with another man – something she later said was untrue.
Just 16 days after his arrest and while still on police bail, Micu went into Ramona’s treatment room at GothInk Studio and stabbed her several times in the neck while saying ‘Was it worth it, Ramona?’
He then killed himself.
Micu’s bail conditions had forbidden him from contacting or visiting Ramona, but not from going to the tattoo studio where they both worked.
She had volunteered to stay away from the business so that Micu could continue ‘earning money again for the family’, but had returned to work by the time of her death.
The DHR pointed out this arrangement may have been a sign of economic abuse, as Ramona had previously told police Micu controlled her access to money.
It said officers did not recognise the threats Micu made during the relationship as indicators of a high-risk situation, nor did they properly account for the wider context of his coercive and controlling behaviour.
The report also highlighted how officers failed to recognise the ‘sudden shift in power’ once Ramona reported the abuse, and did not consider how Micu might react to being arrested.
The DHR said a follow-up risk assessment which ‘might have raised the risk to high’ should have been carried out, but concluded this likely wouldn’t have changed the tragic outcome given the timeframe of Ramona’s killing – which her brother Cezar strongly disputes.
‘How can they conclude that even if they raised it to “high”, they could not protect her because it happened too quickly?’ he asked.
‘This is like them saying: “Sorry, we couldn’t do anything”. This is exactly what I thought had happened: they overlooked the details and they did not protect my sister. This is extremely unacceptable, and I’m not going to let it go.
‘I want answers from the police, and I would like them to take responsibility. If you do a tick-box exercise, people are put at risk, and my sister is a perfect example of this.
‘People lose their lives when you don’t protect them properly.’
Cezar also questioned why police hadn’t banned Micu from the tattoo studio while on bail, saying the arrangement left Ramona in an impossible position as ‘a mum who needed money’.
‘I have never heard of anything so backwards before,’ he said.
When questioned about Micu’s bail conditions, Kent Police said Ramona’s death was ‘the result of a rapid escalation of violence by Mr Micu that nobody could have foreseen’.
Responding to the DHR’s findings, Detective Superintendent David Higham said: ‘Domestic abuse risk assessment is not a single decision but a continuing and dynamic process.
‘We regret that on this occasion it was not as robust as it should have been, and we recognise the further anguish this has caused Ramona’s family.’
He said officers now receive enhanced training about recognising coercive control and the heightened risks after the end of an abusive relationship.
‘Ultimately, there is only one person responsible for Ramona’s death: Catalin Micu.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.