Saudi Prince on Trial for Strangling Servant

(Newser) – A Saudi Prince beat his male servant for weeks before strangling him in a gruesome lovers battle at a ritzy London hotel, a court was told yesterday. Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Al Saud, grandson of King Abdullah, was videotaped kicking and punching Bandar Adulaziz on an elevator at the Landmark Hotel, where the two were living. Bandar is seen cowering in the corner; three weeks later, his battered body was discovered in the prince's bed, reports the Telegraph.

The prosecutor spent much of the first day of the prince's murder trial yesterday attempting to establish his homosexuality. The "fact of his sexuality would ordinarily be of absolutely no relevance to a criminal trial, but in this case it is clear that the defendant’s abuse of Bandar was not confined simply to physical beatings," said the prosecutor. The February night Bandar died, the prince ordered champagne and six shots of Sex on the Beach before the two retired to their room, where a guest reported hearing angry voices, falling furniture and a "dull thud." Bandar was found dead the next day. The prince claimed he had been mugged.