LONDON // The man who attacked three Emirati sisters with a hammer boasted to a friend about the brutal robbery, telling her to search the internet to see what he had done.
“Hyperactive” Philip Spence, 32, told Emma Moss to search for the Cumberland Hotel, where he committed a violent assault on Khuloud Al Najjar, 36, and her sisters Ohoud, 34, and Fatima, 31, who all suffered fractured skulls and life-threatening injuries in the raid.
Ms Moss told Southwark Crown Court on Thursday that she was “really shocked at what I saw” when she searched the internet.
“Philip described a woman coming out and screaming, so he hit her,” she said.
“He had a hammer, he always has a hammer with him. There were two other women who were screaming, so he told me he left the hammer there.”
After leaving the sisters bloodied in their Marble Arch hotel room in the early hours of Sunday April 6, Spence used public transport to visit co-defendant Thomas Efremi, 57. Later that day he visited Ms Moss, the sister of another co-defendant, James Moss, 33.
Spence, who admits attacking the sisters but denies trying to kill them, boasted to Moss that he had robbed £50,000 (Dh297,158) of valuables from a hotel room.
She told police that she had known Spence since she was 10 years old.
“I have never been in an intimate relationship with Philip and no sort of relationship because of his drug addiction,” Ms Moss said. “I believe he has been using crack cocaine and heroin.”
Ms Moss told the court Spence was clearly on drugs when he visited her after the assault.
“On Sunday, April 6, at about 6 to 7pm, I was at my home address with my daughters when Philip arrived. It was still light but getting dark.
“Philip arrived wearing black, brand-new trainers, blue jeans and a black hoodie.
“He was hyperactive and boasting about getting £50,000 worth of jewellery, BlackBerrys, iPods, bags and perfume. He told me he got them from a hotel room.”
He told her he had stolen a diamond necklace that he left at James Moss’s house.
“When Philip left I thought nothing more of it until he returned on Monday at 5am. Philip was shaking and his eyes were really wide. I believe he was on drugs.”
James Moss has admitted to handling stolen goods including mobile phones, handbags and jewellery.
Moss, 33, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods last week after police found a significant amount of the stolen property in his home.
A stolen brown suitcase was discovered in a cardboard box.
Inside, officers found a prayer mat, a Gucci bag and some gold earrings belonging to a fourth sister Sheikha Al Muhairi, who had left the hotel room to buy some chocolates, narrowly avoiding the violent fate that befell her sisters.
There was also a Chanel compact, sunglasses, a camera, five mobile phones and three iPads hidden in a shopping bag.
But valuables worth thousands of pounds were never recovered.
Two valuable watches recently given to Fatima as graduation presents were snatched by Spence. One was a white and yellow gold Rolex, the other studded with diamonds.
A white Cartier diamond-encrusted watch worth £12,000 and a black watch also embellished with diamonds, worth about £3,000, have not been recovered. Two gold rings and two gold bracelets, one by designer Louis Vuitton, are also missing.
Also gone were a Louis Vuitton necklace, gold earrings, a rose-gold solitaire diamond ring, black Gucci sunglasses, cash and bank cards.
Spence was arrested on April 10 at his sister Wendy Aloy’s address in Holloway, north London.
He told police at Islington station that he had cleaned the bloody hammer used to crush the women’s skulls by licking it.
“There ain’t no blood on the hammer. I licked it all off. It went down my mouth,” he told officers.
Efremi has confessed to making 10 withdrawals totalling £5,000 using bank cards stolen from the Emirati sisters, who are all from Sharjah, after Spence gave them to him.
The violent attack left Ohoud with several skull fractures and brain haemorrhaging. Her left eye could not be saved and she is not expected to ever make a full recovery.
Khuloud suffered a fractured skull, broken arm and damage to nerves on the right side of her face.
Fatima sustained a tear to her carotid artery and a fractured skull. Her facial nerves were also damaged and she continues to suffer severe symptoms of vertigo and dizziness.
Efremi, of Islington in north London, denies conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.
Spence, of Alperton in north-west London, has admitted to 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.
Moss, of Stroud Green, north London, will be sentenced later for handling stolen goods.
The trial continues.
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