LONDON: 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 yesterday.
Philip Spence, 32, attacked the three women 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 north-west 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 — 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,” he said. Ohoud, 34, now has only five percent brain function, has lost one eye and cannot speak. Khulood, 37, and Fatima, 31, still require medical treatment for their injuries.
The court heard how drug addict Spence made off with iPads, gold jewellery and mobile phones, before dumping the claw hammer close to the crime scene.
AFP
