Saudi prince killed servant, London court told

LONDON: A Saudi prince killed his servant in their room at a luxury London hotel in a ferocious beating which had a sexual element, a British court was told on Tuesday.

Bandar Abdulaziz, was found dead in bed at the Landmark Hotel in central London on Feb. 15 this year, having suffered extensive injuries, including bite marks to his cheeks, the Old Bailey jury was told.

The 32-year-old had spent the previous three years travelling as an occasional companion of Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, whose father is a nephew of the Saudi king and whose mother is a daughter of the king, the court heard.

The servant had suffered “a series of heavy punches or blows to his head and face”, leaving his left eye closed and swollen, his lips split open and his teeth chipped and broken, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said.

There were also injuries to his ears and internal bruising and bleeding to the brain, as well as severe injuries to the neck consistent with manual compression, the court was told.

The prosecution said the victim also had deep bruising to the back, a rib fracture, and trauma to the stomach caused by heavy punches or kicks, the Press Association reported.

“The post-mortem examination was to reveal the ferocity of the attack to which he had been subjected before he died,” Laidlaw said.

It was not the first time the victim had been subjected to beatings, including one incident after which his ear needed reconstruction, he said.

Closed circuit TV cameras had caught Abdulaziz being hit by the defendant in the hotel lift on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5 and outside a restaurant on the night leading up to his death, Laidlaw said.

Saud had said his aide had been attacked and robbed on a London street three weeks before his death.

Laidlaw told jurors the 34-year-old prince now admitted carrying out the killing. He denies murder and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Saud said he and his servant were “friends and equals” and that he was heterosexual, jurors were told.

But Laidlaw said:” The evidence establishes quite conclusively that he is either gay or that he has homosexual tendencies.

“The defendant's concealing of the sexual aspect of his abuse of the victim was for altogether more sinister reasons and it tends to suggest that there was a sexual element to the circumstances of the killing.”

The prince and his servant had been drinking in the hotel bar until the early hours of the morning before returning to the room. The prince told police he had woken at 3 p.m. and could not rouse the victim.

Bloodstains found in the room were “consistent with the victim having been the subject of a series of separate assaults before he was killed”, the court was told. – Reuters