Saudi prince ‘battered his manservant to death’

A London jury was given an extraordinary insight into the lifestyle of a wealthy Saudi prince yesterday, when Saud Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Al Saud, grandson of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, appeared at the Old Bailey charged with murdering his manservant.

Saud (pictured above through a police van window in February) was said to have subjected his aide to weeks of physical and sexual abuse, before battering him to death in a London hotel on Valentine's Day this year.

The 34-year-old prince and his servant, Bandar Abdulaziz, two years his junior, shared a room at the five-star Landmark Hotel on the Marylebone Road. Bandar apparently slept on the floor at the end of the bed.

The pair had arrived last December, on the final leg of a worldwide holiday which took in Prague, Marrakesh and the Maldives. In London, Saud liked to sleep late, shop in the afternoons, and party at night.

Saud told police that Bandar he was a "friend and equal" who travelled with him everywhere. However, while Saud travelled first class on his world tour, Bandar flew economy. And wherever they landed, he walked two steps behind his master.

The prince, whose mother is King Abdullah's daughter, has constantly denied that he is gay, according to the prosecution. Yet he apparently used the Spartacus International Gay Guide as his travel planner and was reported to have flirted with barmen at the Landmark and used male prostitutes on at least two occasions. When police searched his laptop, they discovered he had looked at gay massage and escort agency websites.

As for his relationship with Bandar, it was "far more complicated than the defendant was prepared to admit and there was an abusive undertone to it," said Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting. "He would beat Bandar up and the abuse was not confined to physical violence  there was a sexual element to it as well."

On February 14, Saud and Bandar returned to the Landmark just before midnight having apparently shared a Valentine's Day dinner.

After drinking champagne and having six Sex on the Beach cocktails, Saud, according to the prosecution, repeatedly punched Bandar in the head, knocking out some of his teeth. He also strangled him with such force that he fractured bones in Bandar's neck. And in the course of attack, he bit Bandar on both cheeks.

The prince tried to cover his tracks, according to the prosecution, by cleaning up the blood before raising the alarm the next day. When an official from the Saudi Arabian Embassy arrived, he found Saud "very upset and crying". Bandar was dead on the bed.

Saud initially told police that Bandar had been attacked by robbers. He later changed his story and admitted killing his servant - but denied it was murder.

Forensic evidence from Saud was found on Bandar's underwear - yet still the prince denied suggestions that he was gay.

Said Laidlaw: "The evidence establishes quite conclusively that he is either gay or that he has homosexual tendencies. There is clear evidence, over and above the bite marks, that there was also a sexual element to his mistreatment of the victim."

The jury was shown CCTV footage of an earlier attack, three weeks before the alleged murder. A security camera inside the Landmark Hotel lift caught the prince punching Bandar with his bare fists.

Laidlaw made the point that Bandar put up no resistance - he was almost entirely submissive during the attack, in which Saud bared his teeth while he pulverised his servant.

The trial continues. ·