Burglar 'battered sleeping tourists with hammer as they slept in London hotel room'

 
Attack: The Cumberland Hotel in Mayfair (Picture: Nigel Howard)
Paul Cheston8 October 2014
WEST END FINAL

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Three sisters who came to London to see the sights were brutally battered by a burglar with a claw hammer as they slept in their hotel beds, a court heard today.

Their heads were smashed with the hammer and their skulls splintered and fractured, the jury at Southwark crown court was told.

One of the sisters lost part of her brain and the blood-soaked scene was later described by emergency workers as “horrific”. The terrifying attack was launched by Philip Spence in full view of the sisters’ children, the court heard. A boy aged nine was left “cowering under the sheets” and his 11-year-old sister’s nightclothes were spattered with blood.

The family had gone to Buckingham Palace and the London Aquarium and retired to bed at the four-star Cumberland hotel near Marble Arch. In the early hours one night in April Spence entered their adjoining bedrooms on the seventh floor and tried to murder them, the court heard.

Prosecutor Simon Mayo QC said Spence then fled with a suitcase of valuables and within an hour £5,000 had been withdrawn by using a stolen bankcard.

Spence, 32, of Harlesden, has admitted three charges of grievous bodily harm but has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder.

His alleged accomplice, Thomas Efremi, 57, of Islington, is said to have supplied the hammer but was not present during the attack.

He has pleaded guilty to fraud but not guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.

Opening the case, Mr Mayo said: “In the early hours three sisters who were visiting London from their home in the United Arab Emirates were subjected to a sustained and vicious attack as they slept.

“Each woman was struck repeatedly to the head by a man wielding a claw hammer. Their skulls fractured and splintered under the onslaught. The intention of their attacker was to kill them.

“The scene that met the eyes of the police and emergency services in the aftermath was, in the words of one of those attending, ‘horrific’. The women suffered terrible injuries.”

The victims were Ohoud, 34, Khulood, 36, and Fatima Al-Najjar, 31. A half-sister, Sheika Al-Mheiri, and their children were travelling with them.

Mr Mayo said: “Spence had set out that evening intent on stealing from hotel bedrooms at a time when his victims would be sleeping. Entering occupied rooms held no fear for him — he took with him a hammer to use in case he was disturbed or met with any resistance, a hammer he had been given by Efremi.

“Efremi knew what Spence was going to do that night. There was an agreement between them that Spence would steal from hotel bedrooms and they would share in the proceeds of the burglaries.”

Khulood’s nine-year-old son was found “cowering under the sheets in the immediate aftermath of this awful attack”. The boy’s sister, who had been sleeping with her mother and her aunt Fatima, was found with blood on her nightclothes.

Mr Mayo said: “As Khulood slept in her bed, she was woken by a sound coming from the corner of the room. She noticed a man searching her handbag. It was Spence. He approached her in her bed, leaned over her and said: ‘Give me f***ing money’ before repeatedly striking her head with the hammer.

“Her screams woke her sister Fatima who saw Spence attack her sister.

“It is almost impossible to imagine the terror that must have seized these poor women as they were confronted in the darkness of their room by Spence wielding that claw hammer. Worse still when he began to rain down blows on their heads.

“A third sister, Ohoud, was subjected to a similarly ferocious assault as she lay in her bed in the adjoining room.

“This attack was not witnessed by her sisters, they did not hear her cry out, so it was possible she was attacked while she slept before Khulood and Fatima were attacked.”

The eldest victim told the court this afternoon how she was hit "more than 30 times."

Mother-of-three Khulood, 36, said she could hear her daughter scream as if "it was like a dream."

Her injuries were so severe she underwent repeated surgery and still faces a fourth operation on Saturday.

Dressed all in black in traditional Arab robes she spoke faltering sometimes through an interpreter.

She described how she woke to see a stranger in the dark rifling her belongings on a corner table including 1,500 pounds cash, her handbag and her phone.

"He approached me as I was lying on the bed. It was very quick. He said, and excuse me for swearing: 'Give me the f****** money'," she said.

"I didn't say anything and he started hitting me, on my cheek, on my eye and everywhere on my head. They were heavy blows. It was more than 30 times.

"I lost consciousness after a few minutes. I remember my daughter screaming, I was bleeding.

"I saw (sister) Fatima on the floor, she was bleeding from everywhere."

The jury was shown pictures of sister Ohoud, 34, who lost an eye and a vast amount of her brain function. "She is not able to speak to me," Khulood told the court.

Later Fatima Al-Najjar, 31, told the jury that the attack left her feeling like a woman drowning under water.

"I was woken by sound of Khulood screaming," she said dressed identically to her sister but with a large plaster across her nose.

"I saw a man attacking her, his arm was up high and he swung it down towards her on the bed.

"I was not understanding what was going on. I was wondering whether this was just a nightmare or a bad dream. I got up to try and stop him attacking her.

"But he then started attacking me to the left side of my head, because I was moving he hit me everywhere, I don't know how many times I was hit.

"It was like when somebody is in the water and is sinking, that's the way I felt."

The case continues.

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