A security guard who was stabbed to death as he tried to prevent gatecrashers from forcing their way into a private party in London had come to the UK for a better life, his girlfriend has said.

Tudor Simionov, 33, was working outside the private event in Park Lane, west London, when he was attacked in the early hours of the new year. On Wednesday evening, Scotland Yard announced that a 26-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder over the attack.

Simionov’s girlfriend, Madalina Anghel, told the Evening Standard: “Right now I can’t think about him in the past. He was my future husband and we came to London from Romania for a better life. I can’t explain in words how much pain I am in.”

Two of Simionov’s colleagues, aged 29 and 37, were also stabbed during the fight, as was a 29-year-old woman. Their injuries are not life-threatening.



DCI Andy Partridge, of the Metropolitan police, appealed for witnesses. “The incident took place outside a venue that was hosting a private party. A number of witnesses have already been spoken to, but it is clear many others who were present are yet to be traced, some of whom may have captured the attack on their mobile phones,” he said.



Partridge said the area would have been busy with people out celebrating and making their way home from various parties and organised events.

Simionov was the second person to die in a knife attack in the capital in 2019, after a woman was stabbed in Camberwell, south-east London. Charlotte Huggins, 33, died from a single stab wound, a postmortem examination found. A 34-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder was released on bail until mid-January. Police said they believe that the victim and the suspect knew each other.

Official figures show that knife and offensive weapon offences rose to the highest level since 2010 last year. The criminal justice system in England and Wales dealt with 21,381 such offences in the year ending in September, according to the Ministry of Justice.