Saudi prince 'killed manservant after sex attacks'

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Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, 34, is accused of murdering Bandar Abdulaziz, 32, at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone in February.

The prince, a grandson of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is alleged to have subjected his aide to repeated vicious assaults over several weeks, two of which were caught on the hotel's CCTV. The court heard that when arrested by police the prince claimed the pair had been friends and equals. Mr Abdulaziz was in fact al Saud's servant and sometimes slept on the floor at the foot of his bed in the five-star hotel suite.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, told the court that the prince was involved in a homosexual relationship with his servant and "sexual" injuries were found on the victim's body.

Mr Abdulaziz's body was found lying in a pool of blood on February 15 after hotel staff were alerted by a member of the Saudi Embassy in London.

The two men had been on a round-the-world holiday before arriving at the Landmark Hotel on January 20.

Mr Laidlaw said the prince had seemed "shocked and upset" about Mr Abdulaziz's death but had lied to police about his true relationship with him.

On the night of Mr Abdulaziz's death the men ate at Scalini's restaurant in Knightsbridge where staff said Mr Abdulaziz looked as if he had been "badly beaten up".

The pair then returned to the hotel where they drank champagne and cocktails in the bar before going up to the room. Police were called by the hotel the following afternoon.

Mr Laidlaw said: "Theirs was a far more complicated relationship than the defendant was prepared to admit and there was an abusive undertone to it. He would beat Bandar up and abuse was not confined to physical violence. There was a sexual element to it as well."

While the prince denied being a homosexual the court heard how a gay barman at the Sanderson Hotel told how the prince flirted with him and suggested they go on a date.

Two male escorts also visited the prince's hotel suite and police found evidence on the prince's laptop that he had been visiting gay escort websites.

The trial continues.