Sister tells how she escaped London hammer attack by going to the shops

Sheikha Al Mheiri reveals to court the horrifying scene when she returned to the Cumberland Hotel room to find sisters in pools of blood.

The Cumberland Hotel in the Marble Arch area of London, where three Emirati sisters were violently attacked by a burglar. Randi Sokoloff for The National

LONDON // The younger sister of three Emirati women bludgeoned in a hammer attack wept yesterday as she described the bloodbath.

Half-sister Sheikha Al Muhairi narrowly escaped becoming the fourth victim of attacker Philip Spence because she had left the family’s room at the Cumberland Hotel, near Marble Arch, central London, by chance to buy chocolate from a nearby shop.

Khuloud Al Najjar, 36, and her sisters Ohoud, 34, and Fatima, 31, suffered smashed skulls and life-threatening injuries after the armed raid in the early hours of Sunday, April 6 by Spence, who fled with their valuables.

He admits three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but denies attempting to murder the sisters.

The door to the rooms had been left on the latch as the key card had gone missing. When Sheikha returned to the seventh-floor suite just 15 minutes later, she could hear her 11-year-old niece screaming that there was a robber, the court heard.

“I was confused because my sisters – I didn’t know why they are not taking care of their kids, why are they screaming like that?” she said via a video link from the UAE.

“I was confused, I didn’t know what was happening.”

The little girl’s nightdress was covered in “a lot of blood” and she was too frightened to open the door, jurors heard.

“When I entered the room I just saw Ohoud and she was covered ... she was, you know, in the bed sheets and I saw the blood but still I was confused about what is happening and I am so horrified.”

“Did you see blood on the walls of the room and on the bed,” asked prosecutor Simon Mayo, QC. “Yes.”

“When you looked at Ohoud, how did she appear?” “Half of her face was damaged. I thought she was dead,” she said, weeping as she recalled the horrific scenes.

In the adjoining room her sister Fatima was lying still on the floor and bleeding from the head. Khuloud was lying on the other side of the room.

“She was on the other side but I feel dizzy when I see blood and her head was covered with so much blood,” saidSheikha, who fled the room shouting for help.

PC Emily Wells, who attended the scene, told jurors she first saw Fatima bleeding from the head. “When I moved farther into the room I could see Khuloud on the floor,” she said.

“She had two blunt-force injuries to her forehead as well. She had two sort of holes in her head [gestures above eyes].”

The violent and unprovoked attack left Ohoud with several skull fractures and intracranial haemorrhaging. Her left eye could not be saved and she is not expected to make a full recovery.

Khuloud suffered a fractured skull, broken arm and has damage to facial nerves on the right side, while 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.

Spence, 32, of Alperton, north-west London, is on trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Co-defendant Thomas Efremi, 57, of Islington, north London, has confessed to making 10 withdrawals totalling £5,000 (Dh29,500) using the sisters’ bank cards, but he denies a further charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.

A third defendant, James Moss, 33, from Stroud Green, north London, will be sentenced later after admitting handling stolen goods including mobile phones, handbags and jewellery. A significant amount of the stolen property was found at his address, including a stolen mobile phone used by Spence to call Efremi, jurors have heard.

The trial continues.