Man found guilty of hammer attack

                     
Philip Spence hit three female tourists before robbing them and leaving them for dead at Cumberland hotel

A man who savagely beat three sisters in a “sustained and vicious” hammer attack as they slept with their young children in a luxury London hotel has been found guilty of attempted murder.

Philip Spence, 32, bludgeoned the trio from the United Arab Emirates in the Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, on 6 April, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Spence fled the scene with a suitcase stuffed with iPads, gold jewellery and mobile phones, and dumped the claw hammer just outside the central London hotel.

Spence admitted the attack, which took place early on 6 April, but denied three counts of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary. A jury of seven women and five men at Southwark crown in London found him guilty after a day of deliberation.

One of his victims was hit with such force her skull split open. She was left with just 5% brain function.

Spence dumped the claw hammer used in the attack just outside the four-star hotel

Ohoud Al-Najjar, 34, was repeatedly hit as her nine-year-old nephew hid under the sheets next to her in bed, the prosecutor Simon Mayo QC said.

She survived the attack, but despite undergoing emergency neurosurgery she can no longer speak and lost one eye.

Her sisters Khulood, 36, and Fatima, 31, were both also left with life-threatening injuries and are still receiving medical treatment.

The family was visiting London on holiday.

In an impact statement, Fatima said seeing her sister Ohoud "breaks my heart.".

"She is now confined to a hospital bed for the rest of her life and unable to communicate, eat, see, move," she said.

"She can only squeeze my hand; she is a living dead sister."

Khulood and Fatima said they had been medically retired from their jobs because of their injuries, saying Spence "took away our futures".

Spence, from near Harlesden, north-west London, stared straight ahead impassively as the verdicts were read out. He faces a life term in prison.

Judge Anthony Leonard QC said: “The sentence I will have to consider is a full life term.”

He added: “You, Mr Spence, must realise that any sentence I impose is bound to be a very substantial sentence, subject to the report I receive.”

The judge also thanked the jury for their time in considering “what must have been an unpleasant case for you”.

Opening the proceedings, Mayo had 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. The intention of their attacker, say the prosecution, was to kill them.

“The scene that met the eyes of the police and emergency services as they arrived in the aftermath was, in the words of one of those attending, horrific,” said Leonard.