LONDON—An aspiring model has told a murder trial her friend confessed to murdering an elderly Chinese woman durng a car journey from London to Coventry.
Maria Amariucai, a Romanian national who had come to London the day before to meet a photographer about a possible modelling job, said she struggled to believe Mohammed El-Abboud’s confession because he had always been a “sweet guy.”
The prosecution claims Kusai Al-Jundi came up with a “careful and cunning plan” to trick Louise Kam, 71, out of two properties she owned, but ended up killing her.
Al-Jundi, 24, and El-Abboud, 28, deny murdering Kam, who was last seen alive on a CCTV camera entering a house in Barnet, north London, on July 26, 2021.
She was strangled with an electrical flex and her body was found on Aug. 1, 2021 in a wheelie bin on the drive of Al-Jundi’s parents’ home in Harrow.
Kam owned a house in Barnet, north London, and a shop with three flats above it, in Willesden, northwest London.
The prosecution say Al-Jundi tricked her into believing he had a rich friend, Anna Reich, who was willing to pay £5 million for the Barnet house, which was worth around £1 million, and well over the market price for the other property.
The prosecution claim Al-Jundi had spent several months leading up to her death trying to deceive Kam into giving him the properties that she owned and to signing over to him the control of her finances.
They say Al-Jundi met with a solicitor in June 2021 and “claimed that both properties were owned by Louise Kam who wanted to move to China and put both of them into his name.”
Giving evidence from behind a screen on Tuesday, Amariucai said she came to Britain five years ago and met El-Abboud, who is also Romanian, when they worked together at a warehouse in Coventry.
‘He Didn’t Say How He Killed Her’
Amariucai said she first met Al-Jundi in May 2021 when she came to London to see El-Abboud.She denied they were “romantically involved” but said he was attracted to her and bombarded her with compliments, saying he wanted her to marry him and have his children.
Amariucai said she came to London on the last weekend in July 2021 and had a meeting on the Sunday about a modelling job.
She stayed at the house in Barnet and on the Monday she told the court she saw a “Chinese lady” visit in the afternoon and saw her in the company of El-Abboud and Al-Jundi.
Amariucai said she went out shopping in the afternoon and Al-Jundi bought her a pair of earrings worth £500.
Later that evening El-Abboud gave her a lift back to Coventry and she said, “He said he could not believe that he had killed that lady.”
Glasgow asked her, “Which lady?”
“The Chinese lady,” she replied, through a Romanian interpreter.
She said, “He didn’t say how he killed her but he said he took her from behind.”
Glasgow asked, “Had anyone asked him to kill the Chinese woman?”
“Kusai asked him to,” she replied.
Glasgow asked her, “Did you believe him when he told you that he had killed the Chinese woman?”
“No, I didn’t believe him. Because I'd never seen him argue or fight with anyone. He was always such a sweet guy,” she replied.
Witness Describes Kusai Al-Jundi as a ‘Walter Mitty’
Earlier Reich, while giving evidence, laughed uproariously when a defence barrister claimed she told his client she had millions of pounds which she wanted to launder through property in London.Martin Rutherford, KC, said, “I’m going to suggest that you told Al-Jundi that you had millions of pounds that you would happily launder through property.”
Reich began laughing before he had completed his sentence and replied: “No. We are dealing with a Walter Mitty.”
Earlier, when Rutherford asked her if she had been discussing buying Kam’s properties with Al-Jundi, she replied: “I had nothing to do with any purchases of any property or real estate that he was dreaming of. Nothing. Categorically. Nothing.”
At one point Reich, who is in her 50s, said, “I am only here to get justice for Louise.”
Rutherford’s final question to her was: “You may never have had the funds to pay for any property, Miss Reich, but Louise Kam did not know that and Kusai Al-Jundi did not know that.”
She replied: “I never intended to buy any properties. I was selling a car to Kusai. It was a huge, huge mistake which nearly destroyed my life.”
The court has heard that Al-Jundi—who was married and had children—told Reich he “loved” her and she “foolishly” handed over a Toyota Rav-4 car to Al-Jundi after he allegedly tricked her into believing he had transferred £27,000 to her by showing her his online banking app.
Opening the case last week, Glasgow said of Reich: “Her experience at the hands of Kusai Al-Jundi left her desperate and ill, her messages to him became increasingly frustrated and irate, but neither pleas nor threats had any effect upon him. Once he had got possession of her property, he had no intention of returning it or paying for it.”
The prosecutor said what happened to Reich was “evidence that shows very little that Kusai Al-Jundi has to say can be trusted—he is a liar and a fraudster, and someone who clearly preys upon vulnerable women to get what he can from them no matter what harm it may cause them.”
Al-Jundi and El-Abboud are being assisted in court by two Arabic interpreters.
The trial is set to last until January.
