Hotel hammer attacker receives life sentence
A man who attacked three women with a hammer in the four-star, 1,019 bedroom Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 18 years.
Philip Spence was arrested after the horrific assault on three sisters, all from the United Arab Emirates, in April this year, which the court they were lucky to survive.
Ohoud Al-Najjar sustained severe injuries, including a split skull, which left here with just 5% brain function, the loss of one eye and the inability to speak. Her sisters, Khulood and Fatima, were both left in critical condition and continue to receive medical treatment, reported Sky News.
Judge Anthony Leonard QC said: "It is nothing short of a miracle combined with the finest medical attention that led to Ohoud surviving the attack. You used deliberate and gratuitous violence over what was needed to carry out the robbery."
Following the brutal assault, Spence left the scene with a suitcase containing iPads, gold jewellery and mobile phones. He dumped the claw hammer he used in the attack outside the hotel in Marble Arch.
Prosecutor Simon Mayo QC said CCTV footage captured Spence on a bus examining the things he took from the hotel room and that he cared more about the profit he could make from his "awful crime" than his victims.
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