Co-accused would have ripped hammer attacker’s heart out if he knew of assault on Emirati sisters, court hears

London courtroom hears from co-accused who says he had no knowledge of Philip Spence's brutal attack on the sisters at their hotel room at the Cumberland Hotel.

October 16, 2014 - The defending barrister questions Efremi while Spence looks on Credit: Priscilla Coleman / MB Media, for The National

LONDON // The co-accused of the man who brutally attacked three Emirati sisters said he would have ripped Philip Spence’s heart out if he knew what he had done.

Thomas Efremi, 57, told jurors at Southwark Crown Court: “I don’t understand why he has done what he has done – only a monster does that.

“I might be a rogue and a rascal but I’m not a monster.

“If that hadn’t happened to them then it would have eventually happened to me.

“Mr Spence had not told me because if he had told me I would have taken his heart out.”

Spence, 33, bludgeoned his victims with a claw hammer as their children lay sleeping at the plush Cumberland Hotel, near Marble Arch, central London.

Efremi, who has admitted a charge of fraud but denies conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, in tandem with Spence, also said that his friend appeared “completely calm” just an hour after he left the sisters for dead.

When questioned by his own lawyer, Harry Potter, Efremi said Spence was “completely calm, he looked a little bit sweaty”.

After the attack Spence had used one of the sisters’ mobile phones to repeatedly call Efremi. When Efremi finally picked up, Spence demanded he dial a drug dealer and boasted he had some money, jurors heard.

Efremi said his friend had simply told him that the suitcase of stolen valuables were “lifted” from a tourist.

Khuloud Al Najjar, 36, and her sisters Ohoud, 34, and Fatima, 31, suffered fractured and “splintered” skulls from the attack.

Efremi told jurors that he had sympathy with the Sharjah sisters as he has been stabbed 27 times.

“I am well aware of what those women are going through and what he has done is atrocious, it is disgusting,” he declared.

“I had seen him change from being normal to aggressive and I normally calm him down.

“He is like a little kid, like a spoilt brat.”

In the witness box wearing a black suit, white shirt and dark-red tie, Efremi said the pair had been smoking crack cocaine and taking heroin at his own flat in Islington, north London, with homeless “street-girl” Nancy since Friday April 4.

Late on April 5, Efremi said he asked Spence to leave his flat because Spence was “greedy” for more.

“He wanted to carry on using, I said you have been using now for two days, go home,” Efremi said.

Unemployed Efremi also in court boasted he was known as a “handler” who Spence often went to because he could sell stolen goods for a better price than other handlers.

When Spence arrived back at Efremi’s flat after the attack in the early hours of April 6, he opened the stolen brown suitcase a few inches, fished out a purse containing bank cards and instructed him to get cash from an ATM.

Just five minutes after Spence arrived at the flat, Efremi headed out with stolen bank cards belonging to youngest victim, Fatima. She had kept her pin hidden in her wallet inside her pink handbag, jurors heard.

Efremi caught a taxi and got the driver to take him to multiple cash points, where he withdrew £5,000 (Dh29,377) in total from the cards.

When he returned Spence revealed the contents of the suitcase to him.

Efremi estimated there was about £10,000 in cash in multiple currencies, about 20 pairs of earrings, 20 rings and a “very particular” diamond studded bracelet.

He insisted he knew nothing about that attack and took nothing but the cards he was handed by Spence.

“I would never enter into any arrangement involving violence or anything like that,” he said. “I have done a bit of fraud, that is it, that is all I have done.”

Two days later CCTV cameras captured Efremi splashing out on a new iPhone in a Vodafone shop and visiting a Sports Direct store in Angel, north London.

He refused to be interviewed following his arrest but referred to Spence as a “hotel creeper” – someone who breaks into hotels looking for somewhere to sleep.

Efremi has racked up previous convictions for shoplifting dating back to 2003 as well as other fraud-related convictions.

In this case he has admitted a single charge of fraud relating to 10 withdrawals totalling £5,000.

Spence, of Alperton, north-west London, admits three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and one count of aggravated burglary. But he denies three counts of attempted murder and one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.

James Moss, 33, has admitted handling stolen goods including mobile phones, handbags and jewellery. Moss, of Stroud Green, north London, will be sentenced later.

The trial continues.