Attempted murder verdict in London hotel thief's hammer attack on UAE sisters

A thief who crept into a London hotel room and brutally attacked three sisters from the United Arab Emirates with a claw hammer was found guilty of attempted murder on Tuesday.

Philip Spence, 32, attacked the three tourists as they slept with their children at the four-star Cumberland Hotel on April 6.

A jury of seven women and five men at London's Southwark Crown Court found Spence, from Harlesden in northwest London, guilty and he could be sentenced to life in prison.

"The sentence I will have to consider is a full life term," said Judge Anthony Leonard.

The Emirati sisters - Ohoud, Khulood and Fatima al-Najja - were sharing adjoining rooms in the hotel and had left their doors open to allow a fourth sister to return later. Spence crept in and was seen by Khulood shortly before 1.30am, rifling through handbags.

The "sustained and vicious" attack left all three unconscious, prosecutor Simon Mayo told jurors.

"Each woman was struck repeatedly to the head by a man wielding a claw hammer - their skulls fracturing and splintering under the onslaught," the prosecutor said.

Ohoud, 34, now has only 5 per cent brain function, has lost one eye and cannot speak. Khulood, 37, and Fatima, 31, still require medical treatment for their injuries.

Prosecutor Baljit Ubhey called it "a truly horrific crime".

"Not only were the three sisters severely injured in the attack, their children were in the room at the time and witnessed the horror of the violence," he said.

Spence will be sentenced on November 17.

In an impact statement, Khulood, 37, said: "When that man attacked myself and my sisters, and stole our belongings, he took far more than our property; he took away our futures, things that I had planned; dreams that I had for my family and children."

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1622244/attempted-murder-verdict-london-hotel-thiefs-hammer-attack-uae-sisters

London hotel attack left woman with skull ‘cracked like an egg’

Relative breaks down giving evidence of attack on three sisters from UAE, who were battered with hammer at the Cumberland

• Press Association
• The Guardian, Wednesday 8 October 2014 13.58 BST
• 
• The half-sister of three women who were brutally attacked with a claw hammer during a night-time raid on their London hotel room, broke down in court as she remembered discovering them covered in blood.
  Ohoud, Khulood and Fatima al-Najjar, from the United Arab Emirates, were staying at the four-star Cumberland hotel, just off Oxford Street, on a family holiday when they were beaten round the head in a “vicious and sustained” attack and left for dead, Southwark crown court heard.
  Philip Spence, 32, admits grievous bodily harm against the three women but denies attempted murder.
  Spence bludgeoned Ohoud, 34, with such force that her skull was split open as her nine-year-old nephew cowered under the sheets next to her, the jury was told.
  Sheika al-Mheiri, the younger half-sister of the women, buried her face and cried when she told jurors she believed Ohoud was dead. She missed the attack by minutes, having gone to visit her brother, who was staying on another floor with the lock left on the latch for her return.
  As she walked back along the corridor she heard her two nieces screaming from inside the room before she was let in.
  “[My niece] had a lot of blood on her nightclothes,” she told the court via video-link from Abu Dhabi.
  “I saw the blood but still I am confused about what’s happening. Then I saw her [Ohoud’s] head. Half of her head was damaged, I thought she was dead.”
  She then turned to discover her two sisters in the adjoining room lying on the floor passing in and out of consciousness. “There was blood everywhere so I took the kids out,” she added. The women has been sharing the room with Khulood’s two daughters aged 11 and seven and her son aged nine.
  The first paramedic to treat the three sisters told jurors she had never seen “such excessive violence used before”.
  Joanna Griffin, of the London ambulance service, described how Ohoud’s skull had been “cracked like an egg” and brain tissue the size of a tennis ball was protruding from her skull. She told the court: “I’ve never seen anything like that before in my career.
  “I assumed It was a huge force to make that kind of injury. I’ve been to a lot of incidents where violence has been used, fights, stabbings, shootings, but I’ve never seen a trauma like that before. I’ve never seen such excessive violence used before.”
  Ohoud, who lost part of her brain, can no longer speak and had to have one eye removed, is never expected to recover from the attack.
  Spence, from Harlesden in north-west London, is also standing trial for conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary alongside Thomas Efremi, 57, from Islington, north London.
  The trial continues.