Hammer attack accused took bus after attack, cameras show

London: Philip Spence, the man accused of bludgeoning three Emirati sisters and leaving them for dead in a top London hotel before fleeing with their valuables was caught on CCTV cameras as he went to hotel and escape after the attacked.

Khulood, 36, and her sisters Ohoud, 34, and Fatima, 31, suffered fractured skulls and life-threatening injuries in the attack.

Dressed in a t-shirt with a distinctive logo on the front, a dark blazer and a brown leather jacket, he concealed the hammer in his clothing.

Spence, 32, entered the hotel at around 1.09am and can be seen striding purposefully through the spacious white lobby moments before launching his savage attack.

Spence boards the lift to the fifth floor and in the 20 minutes that followed brutally hit the three sisters with the hammer.

At 01:36am he walks back out of the hotel through the lobby with a dark brown suitcase in his hand and turns left to go to Marble Arch.

Spence ditched the hammer out of a seventh-floor fire escape window, jurors heard.

Two minutes later, Spence is seen running towards the N16 night bus to Victoria, breathing heavily and boarding.

He climbs the stairs to the empty upper deck and throws himself into a seat on the back row before travelling to co-defendant Thomas Efremi’s flat in north London.

He gets off a second bus almost exactly an hour after he is seen exiting the Cumberland Hotel.

Spence then walks to Efremi’s flat. Within minutes Efremi, 57, leaves his flat in possession of the stolen bank cards and withdrew £5000 in cash.

He is later seen on CCTV shopping at various locations including the Vodafone store in Angel, north London.

Spence, of (34) Abbeyfields Close, Alperton, northwest 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.

Efremi, of (22) Upper Handa Walk, Islington, north London, denies conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.

He has admitted fraud by false representation.

James Moss, of (Flat A, 28) Hanley Road, Stroud Green, north London, awaits sentence after admitting handling stolen goods.

The trial continues.

The writer is a journalist based in London