LONDON—Two young men allegedly murdered a 71-year-old woman in London after coming up with a “careful and cunning plan” to trick her out of her life savings, a court in London heard on Thursday.
Kusai Al-Jundi, 24, and Mohammed El-Abboud, 28, both deny murdering Louise Kam, who was last seen alive on a CCTV camera, entering a house in Barnet, north London, on July 26, 2021.
Her son Greg contacted the police after he was unable to speak to his mother on the phone and became suspicious about text messages he received from her phone that said she was moving to China.
Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecutor Oliver Glasgow, KC, 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.”
Kam had driven her BMW 3 Series convertible from her home in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, and it was found two days later.
She was strangled with an electrical flex and her body was found on Aug. 1, 2021 near Al-Jundi’s home in Harrow.
The prosecutor said that after Kam went missing Al-Jundi lied about where she had gone.
Glasgow said: “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.”
He said: “Kusai Al-Jundi befriended Louise Kam and sought to persuade her to give to him the two properties that she owned. He deceived her into believing that he would pay her vast sums of money in exchange for these properties.”
Kam owned a house in Barnet, north London, and a shop with three flats above it, in Willesden, northwest London.
Glasgow said, “Al-Jundi ... 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 the control of her finances.”
Defendant ‘Mocked Her Wealth’ on TikTok
As part of the plan, it is claimed by the prosecution El-Abboud moved into Kam’s house in Barnet and treated the property as if it was his own.While there he posted videos on TikTok that “mocked her wealth and good fortune.”
The prosecutor said Al-Jundi had 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. Nothing could be further from the truth, but this chimes with the lie that Kusai Al-Jundi was later to give to Louise Kam’s family and friends in the messages he sent to them from her mobile telephone after she had been killed.”
The jury was told that Al-Jundi had mentioned a rich girlfriend, called Anna, who had offered to buy property for him and he had offered £5 million for the house in Barnet. Glasgow said Kam was “doubtless tempted” as it was only valued at £1.3 million and she stood to make a substantial profit.
Glasgow said: “In fact, there was a woman called Anna in Kusai Al-Jundi’s life, but she was not his girlfriend, she had not given him any money, and she was not planning on purchasing any property from Louise Kam—that was the very last thing she wanted to do. The ‘Anna’ that Kusai Al-Jundi knew was a lady called Anna Reich and much like Louise Kam was to become, Anna Reich had already been a victim of Kusai Al-Jundi’s dishonesty.”
He said 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.
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.”
Glasgow said that on July 12, 2021, “Al-Jundi told Kam that he had transferred nearly £6.5 million to her account.”
But it was a ruse, the prosecutor said, which was part of a plan to defraud her of her life savings.
As part of the plan El-Abboud sold Kam’s car after killing her, claimed the prosecutor.
Glasgow said, “That plan had ended with both defendants murdering Louise Kam, hiding her body, and deceiving those who cared for her as to her whereabouts.”
Al-Jundi and El-Abboud, who is a Romanian national, listened to the prosecution’s opening with the help of two Arabic translators.
The trial is set to last until January.
