A toy boy who murdered a wealthy millionairess and hid her body in a graveyard has been jailed for life with a 35-year minimum term.
Sergan Kaygusuz had spent three years bleeding £284,000 from Norma Girolami after meeting her in 2017, splashing out on a car, designer clothes, a games console and visits to sex workers.
The 42-year-old murdered the ‘kind’ and ‘overly generous’ pensioner at her home in Highgate in 2021 after she refused to sell a house she owned in the New Forest to give him even more cash.
He meticulously planned how to dispose of the 70-year-old’s body, going to her flat armed with a chilling ‘gimp mask’ to stifle her screams, before later disposing of her body in a shallow grave in Barnet, where it was found 15 months later.
Kaygusuz, who denied murder and whose on lawyer described him as a ‘thoroughly dishonest’ man at the trial before he refused to give evidence at the trial, was convicted of her murder by a jury in just 19 minutes.
Serkan Kaygusuz has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years for murdering a millionairess and hiding her body in a cemetery
Norma Girolami was murdered by Kaygusuz after she refused to sell a home she owned in the New Forest to give him more cash
Kaygusuz, who has a previous conviction for voyeurism for taking videos of naked women in leisure centres between October 2013 and September 2014, had met Ms Girolami at Archway leisure centre and had chatted her up in the hot tub.
He also had a conviction for battery in 2015, when he followed a 16-year-old girl home from college and pulled her hair.
He admitted stealing from Ms Girolami and burying her body but denied murder and offered no explanation as to how she died.
His barrister suggested Ms Girolami may have fallen over and had a heart attack but an Old Bailey jury took just 19 minutes to convict him of murder.
Jailing him for life with a minimum of 35 years, Judge Philip Katz, KC, said: ‘Norma Girolami was a fun loving and kind, life affirming person. She was also a generous woman, perhaps too generous. She didn’t like to say no.
‘Sadly after the death of her mother she had come to feel more alone in the world. This was the woman you met in 2017.
‘You made a sexual advance in a hot tub at the swimming pool you both attended.
‘The facts behind your previous convictions supports the inference that your conduct was deliberate and sleazy rather than accidental.
‘With her money you bought yourself two cars, and paid for an electrician’s course. She was pleased to help you and thought it made you happy.
‘I accept it was a mutually beneficial relationship.
‘By the summer of 2021 you had more cash, her cash, in your bank account than she did.
‘There is no evidence you were under any financial pressure. I am sure that you were driven by greed.
‘I am sure that you planned to kill her to get what was left of her money.
‘Only you know how Norma died and you have chosen not to tell anyone.
‘This was a premeditated and planned murder of an elderly woman in her own home. It was a terrible betrayal of trust.’
Ms Girolami’s body was discovered in a shallow grave in St James’ Churchyard in Barnet, 15 months after she was killed
Police cordoned off St Katherine’s Church in Barnet after Ms Girolami’s body was found in November 2022
Kaygusuz wore the same blank expression he had throughout the trial as he was led away.
Earlier Ms Girolami’s cousin Pia Graham watched from the side of the court while her victim impact statement was read out.
She said: ‘Norma was a life affirming, loving, kind and thoughtful 70-year-old lady.
‘She would read a lot, she was a fan of the author Hilary Mantel and enjoyed discussing historical novels.
‘She was an active lady who enjoyed aqua aerobics and walking around the park.
‘She was keen to promote the work of charities that were important to her, including climate change, animal welfare, cancer research and heart disease.
‘She enjoyed travelling and visiting locations at home and abroad. She had been a land lady and was enjoying her retirement period.
‘You Serkan, have taken something beautiful from the world, someone unique, kind and benevolent.
‘Those fortunate to grow up with her would often look up to her.
‘She was a warm person who would also comfort and send messages of love and support to everyone who knew her.
‘She was generous, and would always buy tea and cakes for people at the local church, and take people out for meals.
‘She did these things because giving gave her pleasure. She was known for it in the local community.
‘You cruelly betrayed her love, took advantage of her generosity and cruelly started stripping her of all she had.
‘There came a point where Norma stopped giving. You could have walked away with a fortune in the bank but instead you got greedy, planned to murder her and it was a plan you carried out.
‘That was where our nightmare began. We had to deal with the painful loss of a loved one who just seemed to have vanished, apparently without any clue.
‘We came to know something was very wrong. We were just waiting as the police searched tirelessly for what we now expected to be a body.
‘You continued your lies and kept quiet for almost a year.
‘We can only imagine the unhappiness you would have put her through with your controlling behaviour and what she might have suffered in the final hours of her life.
‘Obviously you had gained confidence in your control of Norma and you thought you could just make her disappear and no one would notice.
‘How very wrong you were. Every day Norma’s friends and family have been here.
‘Who is here to support you, we wonder? Throughout this trial we have learnt what kind of man you are, a cold-blooded killer.’
Kaygusuz, pictured here in a BP petrol station in September 2021, was seen making unusual purchases at the time Ms Girolami went missing
Ms Girolami was last seen alive at her house in Elm Court, Highgate (pictured here with police outside), in August 2021
Kaygusuz had meticulously planned how to dispose of the body and may have been inspired by the case of John Sandoval, the American killer who buried his wife’s body in the grave of a WWII veteran and got away with it for more than 20 years.
He went to Ms Girolami’s flat after she had been for a day at the seaside armed with a chilling ‘gimp mask’ to stifle her screams.
Kaygusuz probably strangled her before wrapped his victim’s body in sheets of industrial plastic – exactly as Sandoval had done with his wife.
He took the body to the churchyard of St James the Great in Friern Barnet, where it was the private burial took place in the dead of night.
Kaygusuz bought special ground stabilisers to stop the earth falling in around the body and carefully replaced the turf he had cut from the top of the site.
He even sprinkled grass seed over the grave and encouraged it to grow with lawn fertiliser.
Her body lay undiscovered for 15 months before the trail led to Kaygusuz and the ‘clandestine grave.’
Defence lawyer Paul Mendelle said there was no evidence that Ms Girolami had been caused unnecessary suffering in the moments before her death.
He said there had been very little communication between Kaygusuz and his family and he would be isolated in prison.
Ms Girolami was a wealthy woman when she met Kaygusuz at the Archway leisure centre in 2018.
She had sold a house in Highgate for £1.9 million a few years before and her businessman father left her a share in two more properties when he died earlier that year.
Ms Girolami had never married and had no children, although she had been in several relationships.
She attended her Catholic church regularly, went to the local swimming pool twice a week and shopped and ate out regularly.
Kaygusuz had been a shelf stacker in Lidl but was unemployed and had a long term girlfriend he met in a coffee shop.
Kaygusuz was found to have purchased a mouth plug with an adjustable belt which can be used to restrain a person from his Amazon account
He divorced in 2008 after a two year marriage and was living with his parents in Finsbury Park.
For six months the couple had a sexual relationship but it ended when it became to painful for the spinster.
In early 2018, when she met Kaygusuz, Ms Girolami had £670,000 in her savings accounts.
By the time she died, she had £32,000 while he had £127,867 in his account.
Ms Girolami had complained to several friends about Kaygusuz pressurising her for money and in May 2021 she ‘turned off the tap.’
He continually badgered her to sell the house in New Milton, Hampshire, which had been owned by her businessman father.
The victim had been promising to send him more money when the property was sold which she said would be ‘any day now.’
He planned her murder after posing as a prospective buyer and finding the house was in fact still on the market.
Ms Girolami went for a day at the seaside in Leigh-on-Sea on 19 August 2021 and returned to her £900,000 apartment in Cholmeley Park, Highgate.
Kaygusuz met her there that night and murdered her.
Before she died he had bought 30m of black rope, a ball gag and harness, handcuffs, long gloves, plastic overalls, duct tape and a garden fork.
He also purchased the ground stabilisers and plastic sheeting that he would use to wrap around the body.
After burying her he took out another £20,000 from her bank account and successfully applied for £60,000 in loans under her name.
Part of the money was used to buy a £20,000 Kia Niro car.
He then took over her mobile telephone and laptop, pretending to her friends and neighbours that she was alive and well, away or on holiday.
When police questioned Kaygusuz about Ms Girolami he said he had just ‘kept her company’ and denied taking large sums of money from her.
But after his arrest, police found google searches on his phone for ‘body found in cemetery’ and ‘body found in cemetery London.’
They managed to narrow their search to St James the Great where a member of the congregation told them about the suspicious disturbed ground he had seen over a year before.
Shortly afterwards police exhumed Ms Girolami’s body still wrapped in plastic sheets and a fitted bedsheet with a carrier bag over her head.
The pathologist was unable to give a cause of death because of decomposition, but the victim has suffered three broken ribs which he found was consistent with Kaygusuz restricting her breathing.
Kaygusuz, of Sparsholt Road, Finsbury Park, denied but was convicted of murder.
He admitted perverting the course of justice, theft, transferring criminal property, and three counts of fraud.
DailyMail
