Life sentence for man who killed 23-year-old woman

A man who strangled a woman to death has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 17 years.

Jon Ismaili spent two hours with his victim, Catalina Birlea, 23, at a property in Cambridge on 2 October 2025.

The 33-year-old, of Montgomery Grove, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, was sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court on Monday.

Ismaili made no comment during police interviews and had denied murder, but a jury unanimously found him guilty last week.

He travelled to the house in Chesterton Road at about 08:50 BST and spent two hours there before leaving, Cambridgeshire Police said.

Birlea was found by a friend 90 minutes later but she died at the scene.

Detectives said she had been working as a sex worker on the morning she was killed.

A post-mortem examination concluded she died as a result of compression of the neck.

Despite covering his face as he left, Ismaili was identified using facial recognition technology as being the man entering and leaving the property, the force said, and he was arrested on 5 October.

Det Insp Mark Dollard has previously encouraged people working in the sex industry who have experienced violence to report it to the police.

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