Romy Maynard, 28, to serve at least 18 years after killing 22-year-old Chrissie Azzopardi in north London over drug debts

A man has been jailed for life after being found guilty of stabbing a transgender woman to death in her bedroom.

Romy Maynard, 28, denied killing 22-year-old Chrissie Azzopardi in Finsbury Park, north London, in April last year.

Azzopardi, who was due to undergo gender reassignment surgery, was found lying on her bed with stab wounds. Her body had lain undiscovered for more than a month until June last year, when neighbours noticed a bad smell and alerted the authorities, the Old Bailey heard.

Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said the victim had been stabbed twice in the chest. "The killing was swift and brutal," Heywood said. "It is likely she fought back but was very quickly overwhelmed. The killer then left her while she lay on the bed, dead or dying. In all probability, she knew her killer and she allowed him there.

"He covered her face with one of the pillows from the bed, either to finish his work or perhaps to avoid her stare in death."

Following a two-week trial, a jury found Maynard guilty of murder in a unanimous verdict, a court official said. He was sentenced by Judge Charles Wide QC to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.

Heywood said Azzopardi's killer had removed from the flat "anything obvious" that would link him to the murder, but left "biological traces" behind.

The court heard that the victim was due to have gender reassignment surgery late last year, having undergone assessments in February. "She had everything to look forward to in life, although her state of mind at that time was, on occasions, up and down," Heywood said.

Maynard lived with his girlfriend and child on the same street as Azzopardi at the time of the killing, the court heard.

Maynard had told the court it was "absolute nonsense" to suggest he killed Azzopardi, who owed him money after he supplied her with cannabis.

The defendant was in hospital with an injured hand in the days after the killing, but had told his family he had sustained the injury fighting with a group of Somali men, the court heard. Asked by Heywood whether he stabbed and smothered Azzopardi in an "explosion of temper", Maynard replied: "I did not do those things. Why would I do that?"

Mr Heywood said: "That's why you didn't tell anyone when you had to go to the hospital because of what happened to your hand." Maynard replied: "That's absolute nonsense. Hogwash."

Telephone records showed that the defendant and Azzopardi were in contact with each other in the days before her death, the jury was told.

Officers discovered her lifeless body on June 4 2012, lying on the bed and fully clothed, the court heard. Blood was splattered on the radiator and on the floor in the bedroom, Mr Heywood said.

"There were knives in the kitchen but none with any traces of blood," he added. "That suggests, says the prosecution, that the weapon used to cause these injuries was carried away."