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Gay Saudi prince 'murdered servant in ferocious attack'
A gay Saudi prince killed his servant in a murder of ''ferocity'' which had a ''sexual element'', a court heard today.
Published: 11:54AM BST 05 Oct 2010
Faisal Abdul Aziz Al-Saud arrives at the Old Bailey Photo: CENTRAL NEWS
Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz
Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud had previously subjected Bandar Abdulaziz to physical assaults and mistreatment, the Old Bailey was told. The 32-year-old victim was found beaten and strangled in bed at the London hotel room he was sharing with the prince on February 15. A series of injuries including bite marks to Mr Abdulaziz's cheeks revealed the ''ferocity of the attack to which he had been subjected'', a jury was told.
The prince at first claimed his aide had been robbed and attacked in Edgware Road three weeks before his death, the Old Bailey heard. But CCTV footage from a lift at the Landmark hotel in Marylebone where they were staying showed the victim had been subjected to a ''really nasty assault'' by the defendant himself on January 22, said Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting.
It became clear to police that he had been killed ''in the privacy of the room he had shared with the defendant and when alone with him'', the court heard. Further searches of CCTV footage revealed previous assaults on the victim by the defendant, Mr Laidlaw said. The prince was arrested and detectives began trying to establish ''the true nature of the relationship'' between the men, he added.
Saud claimed they were ''friends and equals'' and that he was heterosexual, jurors were told. But Mr Laidlaw said: ''The evidence establishes quite conclusively that he is either gay or that he has homosexual tendencies. ''It is clear that his abuse of Bandar was not confined simply to physical beatings. There is clear evidence, over and above the bite marks, that there was also a sexual element to his mistreatment of the victim.''
Mr Laidlaw said the covering up of his homosexuality might in other circumstances be explained by embarrassment or fear. But he added: ''The defendant's concealing of the sexual aspect to 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.'' Mr Laidlaw told jurors the prince now admits carrying out the killing so it would be for them to decide if he were guilty of murder or only manslaughter.
The 34-year-old denies murder and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent. The court heard that the prince and his aide had been staying together at the hotel since January 20 as part of an "extended holiday". Mr Abdulaziz's body was found with blood on his pillow in room 312 and the defendant appeared "shocked and upset", jurors were told.
He told police they had been drinking in the hotel bar until the early hours of the morning before returning to the room and that when he woke at about 3pm he 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", jurors heard. The defendant had tried to clean up some of the blood and wash some of Mr Abdulaziz's bloodstained clothing, Mr Laidlaw said.
CCTV footage revealed the prince attacking his servant in the lift of the hotel on February 5 and, on the night leading up to his death, kicking him outside a restaurant, Mr Laidlaw said. He added: "The post-mortem examination was to reveal the ferocity of the attack to which he had been subjected before he died." The victim 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.
There were also injuries to his ears and internal bruising and bleeding to the brain, the court heard. Mr Laidlaw said there were "severe injuries to the neck" which were "consistent with an episode of manual compression". There was also "deep bruising" to the back, a rib fracture, and "trauma" to the stomach caused by heavy punches or kicks, the jury was told.
Mr Laidlaw said there were bite marks to the cheeks, to the left arm, and possibly to the victim's ears. The marks to the cheeks had "an obvious sexual connotation", he said. Mr Laidlaw said the prince "continues to tell lies" about the nature of his relationship with his servant. The court heard that the victim, an orphan who had been adopted by a middle class family, had met Saud through friends and spent the last three years travelling with him as an "occasional companion".
Jurors were told the defendant was a member of the Saudi royal family. "His father is a nephew of the King and his mother is a daughter of the King," said Mr Laidlaw, Saud was educated privately, learning English, and at university he studied political science. "He has the title of prince," said Mr Laidlaw. Before coming to Britain, the defendant and his aide had been to Milan, Budapest, Prague, and Marrakesh.
They appeared to have spent one night at the Landmark Hotel on December 29 last year before travelling to the Maldives where they spent the next three weeks, the jury was told. The men returned to London on January 20, with the prince travelling business class and his aide in economy and they were collected from Heathrow airport by a chauffeur working for the Saudi embassy and taken to the Landmark Hotel.
They shared room number 321 before the prince asked for a bigger room and they were moved to number 312, an "executive" room, the court heard.
Mr Laidlaw said the men would spend their time shopping, eating out and at bars and nightclubs, often staying up late and sleeping in, and not leaving the hotel until early the next afternoon. He added: "There was a far more complicated relationship than the defendant was prepared to accept and there was an abusive undertone to it."
Two gay escorts were called to the hotel during February, where they performed sex acts on the prince, the court heard. Examination of his laptop revealed that he had been browsing and visiting gay massage and gay escort agency websites, and on paper in the room there were also notes of telephone numbers relating to such agencies, Mr Laidlaw said.
A porter at the hotel formed the impression that Mr Abdulaziz was the prince's servant but also that they were involved in a "relationship of sorts and were gay", the jury was told. Another said the victim was "quiet, he did not talk much and he was instructed what to do", the court heard. The manager of a restaurant where the men dined on January 24 thought "from their behaviour and the way they spoke that they were gay".
Mr Laidlaw said the prince "flirted" with a gay barman at a hotel where he was drinking on another occasion and "suggested that they go out socially together". There was one double bed in the bedroom shared by the prince and his aide and there were occasions when the two men might have shared it but others when the servant apparently slept on the floor behind the sofa, the court heard.
