Police initially believed that there were no suspicious circumstances when Osaretin Oronsaye, 62, was found dead at his home in Dartford on July 5 last year.
Dorin Ciorba, 29, of Barking, was charged with murder two weeks later, after a post-mortem examination showed Mr Oronsaye had been stabbed in the jugular and strangled manually and with cable ties.
At Maidstone Crown Court in Kent on Tuesday (January 20), jurors heard that Ciorba was sent an email informing him of Mr Oronsaye’s small claims court case against him the day before the alleged attack.
Ciorba, a dual Romanian and Moldovan national, was accompanied in the dock by a Romanian interpreter for the opening of his trial.
He is also charged with robbery, having left the flat with Mr Oronsaye’s wallet, keys and phone, and later used his bank accounts, the court heard.
Dominic Connolly, prosecuting, said: “It is the Crown’s case that this defendant, Dorin Ciorba, was engaged by the deceased, Mr Osaretin Oronsaye, to carry out maintenance work for him at his flat in Dartford.
“You will hear how that work gave rise to a dispute between the two men.
“As a result of that dispute Mr Oronsaye commenced legal proceedings against Mr Ciorba in the small claims court at Dartford County Court for a sum of approximately £2,100 that he said he owed him.
“It’s the Crown’s case that on Saturday the 5th July 2025, Mr Ciorba travelled across London to Mr Oronsaye’s flat in Dartford.
“It is known from local CCTV that Mr Ciorba was in Mr Oronsaye’s flat for half an hour and, in that period, the Crown say that he murdered him, by stabbing him in the neck most likely with a pair of scissors, strangling him using cable ties as well as strangling him with his hands, and striking his head with a hard sharp object, most likely an electric radiator that was in the room.”
Mr Oronsaye’s wife, Oghomwen Ogebor, found him when she arrived home at about 6pm, under a duvet in their en-suite bathroom lying in a pool of blood.
The cable ties were still around his neck and the scissors were found underneath him when he was moved for CPR, the court heard.
Despite the efforts of neighbours and paramedics, Mr Oronsaye, who owned a window cleaning business, was pronounced dead at the scene at 6.27pm.
Ms Ogebor later told police that the door to the flat had been locked from the outside, and that she thought Ciorba had a spare key.
Ciorba first worked for Mr Oronsaye and his wife at their two-bedroom flat as a painter in 2023, and was contracted to work for them again in April 2025, on their bedroom and bathroom, the court heard.
The prosecution says that Mr Oronsaye paid the handyman up front, believing he would be able to claim on insurance, but the company sent the money to the contractor, meaning Ciorba had been paid twice.
Texts and calls between them show Mr Oronsaye trying to get back that money from Ciorba, before bringing a claim at the small claims court for £2158.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Ciorba cycling to Dunlop Close wearing a white hooded top and black gloves.
The prosecution allege he is seen to pull a balaclava up over his face, one of which was later found at Ciorba’s address with DNA from Mr Oronsaye.
He was then seen cycling away from Dunlop Close almost exactly half an hour later, wearing a different outfit and with no gloves, before boarding a train into London.
He then began to use Mr Oronsaye’s cards, and on July 8, searched words like “Dartford murder”, while the police were still treating the death as a suicide.
“Here we see Mr Ciorba doing a google search to see if there’s any report of a murder…in the absence of such a report it appears he feels safe to use Mr Oronsaye’s bank cards,” said Mr Connolly.
His home was searched on July 17, 2025, and papers relating to the small claims proceedings were found, along with cable ties and Mr Oronsaye’s car keys and bank cards.
Ciorba denies murder and robbery, saying that he had gone to Mr Oronsaye’s flat to finish a decorating job on July 5.
It is the defence case that Mr Oronsaye propositioned Ciorba for sex to pay off his debt while he was there, and the defendant shoved him to the floor, where he hit his head, but did not attack him beyond that.
The trial continues.
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