Gay Saudi royal guilty of killing abused servant

Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud was found guilty at the Old Bailey yesterday of murdering Bandar Abdulaziz in a "brutal" assault at their five-star hotel suite.

The prince bit the 32-year-old hard on both cheeks during the attack in February which was said to have had a "sexual element".

He was fuelled by champagne and Sex on the Beach cocktails when he began the ferocious beating after a Valentine's Day night out.

The 34-year-old, a member of one of the world's richest and most powerful dynasties, was found guilty of murder by an Old Bailey jury after just one hour and 35 minutes of deliberation.

Shaven-headed and wearing a black top, he showed no reaction to the verdict. His father Prince Abdulaziz, who watched from the public gallery, later appeared visibly shaken and was attended to by the court matron before being driven away.

Whatever sentence he serves Saud is expected to subsequently apply for asylum since he faces the death penalty if he ever returns home, where homosexuality remains a capital offence in Saudi Arabia under the country's Islamic sharia law.

His lawyers failed to stop details of his encounters with male escorts being revealed.

John Kelsey-Fry QC said he has already faced abuse from Islamic fundamentalists at Belmarsh prison and Saudi nationals have been granted asylum in the UK on the basis they were gay.

The conviction means an end to his playboy lifestyle in which he secretly entertained male escorts in his plush hotel room. A gay masseur described him as a cross between Omar Sharif and Nigel Havers.

But the court heard the murder of Mr Abdulaziz was the final act in a "deeply abusive" master-servant relationship in which the prince carried out frequent attacks on his aide "for his own personal gratification".

Jurors heard that by the early hours of February 15, the servant was left so worn down and injured – having already suffered a "cauliflower" ear and swollen eye – he simply let Saud kill him without a fight.

The prince then spent hours on the phone to Saudi Arabia trying to work out how to cover up what he had done.

He calmly ordered two glasses of milk and bottled water on room service as he set about dragging the body into the bed and trying to clean up the blood. It was only about 12 hours later, after chauffeur Abadi Abadella received a call from Saudi Arabia telling him to go to the hotel.

The prince explained away his injuries by saying he had been attacked and robbed of 3,000 euros in London's Edgware Road weeks before.

But detectives reviewing CCTV at the hotel found disturbing footage of Saud mercilessly attacking his aide in a lift.

The prince also claimed he was heterosexual and had a girlfriend in Saudi Arabia, but he had booked appointments with at least two male escorts and one gay masseur, and looked at men on gay websites. Compromising photographs were on his phone.

Saud, who told detectives he was the grandson of the Saudi king, had denied killing his servant until shortly before the trial, before finally admitting that he had caused his death.

But jurors rejected a claim that he was only guilty of manslaughter and convicted him of both murder and a second count of grievous bodily harm with intent relating to the attack in the lift.

Police met by wall of silence from saudi counterparts

British police faced a wall of silence when trying to get information from their Saudi counterparts, according to a source close to the investigation into prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud.

They were also confronted with embassy officials who tried to claim Saud had diplomatic status after his arrest. But although he does have that status in some Middle Eastern countries, he does not in Britain, the Foreign Office said.

Detectives knew nothing about his history before he went to London apart from what Saud had told them and have no knowledge of whether the prince has a history of violence.

Requests for information about the backgrounds of the prince and his servant, next of kin, telephones and sim cards were made through Interpol and received by authorities in the kingdom, said the source. There was very little response.