Louise Kam was strangled at her property in East Barnet
(Picture: PA Media)A pensioner was strangled with a hairdryer cord and her body was dumped in a rubbish bin in a plot to get hold of her £1.3 million north London home, the Old Bailey heard.
Louise Kam, 72, was last seen alive on CCTV as she arrived at the property in East Barnet when she allegedly believed she was about to sell the home for £5 million.
She never emerged from the meeting with Kusai Al-Jundi, a 24-year-old chef, and her lodger Mohamed El-Abboud, 28, jurors heard
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow KC said Ms Kam had fallen victim to a “cunning plan” orchestrated by Al-Jundi to swindle her out of the property, and she was murdered by both defendants when the plan did not work.
“Towards the end of July last year, Louise Kam’s friends and family became concerned about her well-being - no one had seen or heard from her for several days, and the messages that had been sent from her mobile telephone, which purported to have been sent by her, did not sound like she had written them”, he said.
“Little did those closest to her realise that when they were replying to those messages, Louise Kam was already dead. She had been strangled, her body dumped unceremoniously in a rubbish bin, and a plan was afoot to conceal her murder and plunder her life savings.
“That plan had been hatched by Kusai Al-Jundi, who had spent the months leading up to her death trying to deceive Louise Kam into giving him the properties that she owned and to signing over to him Kusai Al-Jundi the control of her finances.
“That plan had seen Mohamed El-Abboud move into Louise Kam’s house, treat her property as his own and then sell her car after she had been killed.
“And that plan had ended with both defendants murdering Louise Kam, hiding her body and deceiving those who cared for her as to her whereabouts.”
The court heard Ms Kam, a divorced mother-of-two, told her son in the months before her death that she had been offered several million pounds for her property in Gallants Farm Road, East Barnet.
Al-Jundi, the chef at a restaurant in Willesden, befriended Ms Kam and is accused of claiming he had a rich girlfriend who was looking to buy property.
“He tricked her into signing paperwork in connection with the sale of her house. And he managed to obtain her signature on a power of attorney which had the potential to leave him in control of her personal finances”, said Mr Glasgow, outlining the prosecution case.
“During the course of his carefully orchestrated deception, Kusai Al-Jundi sent messages to Louise Kam in order to gain her trust and persuade her that she needed to transfer money to him.
“He instructed solicitors to act for both him and Louise Kam in order that her properties could be given to him without the need for any funds to change hands.
“And he tried to obtain signed and witnessed paperwork that would enable him to claim her properties as his own once she was dead.”
El-Abboud moved into Ms Kam’s property as a lodger and “posted videos on social media that mocked her wealth and good fortune”, the court heard.
It is said Ms Kam, who lived with her son in Potters Bar, was murdered on July 26 last year, when she had been expecting to finalise the sale of the East Barnet home.
Mr Glasgow said after the murder Al-Jundi “began to use Louise Kam’s mobile telephone to send messages to her friends and family pretending that she was alive and well, and that she had gone on holiday.
“But those who knew her best realised that this was a lie and that the messages they were being sent could not have been written by Louise Kam.
“When Louise Kam’s friends questioned Kusai Al-Jundi about her whereabouts, he even had the audacity to claim that she had deceived him and that she had left the country taking his money with her.”
El-Abboud allegedly moved Ms Kam’s car from the driveway and then sold the vehicle as part of a cover-up, while Ms Kam’s body was dumped in a bin and moved.
Jurors heard Al-Jundi’s DNA was found with the body, while El-Abboud’s DNA was on the hair dryer cord which is believed to have been used to strangle Ms Kam.
Ms Kam’s blood and DNA were also found on El-Abboud jumper, it is said.
Mr Glasgow said El-Abboud also allegedly admitted to a friend that he had murdered Ms Kam on Al-Jundi’s instructions.
Al-Jundi, from Harrow, and Al-Abboud, from East Barnet, both deny murder.
The trial continues.
