A millionaire hotel boss had just won a long-runni

A millionaire hotel boss had just won a long-running battle with cancer when he was smothered to death by his boyfriend and his new lover, a court heard.

Phillip Davis, 65, had endured two years of treatments and painful operations for bladder cancer when he was finally given the all-clear in June last year.

But just a month later he was battered over the head and throttled in bed, the Old Bailey jury heard.

Mr Davis’s surgeon Mark Emberton said: ‘He had blood in the urine in August, 2001.

It was an aggressive cancer of the bladder and was spreadable.

‘He had keyhole surgery in October 2001 and the whole tumour was successfully moved and in December he had a check and there was no evidence of the tumour remaining.

‘

At the time, Mr Davis’s gay relationship with accused killer Jan Mertens, 41, had become ‘tempestuous’, the court has heard.

Belgian Mertens, who met Mr Davis in 1995, brought a new lover – Raoul Billia, 29 – to their home in Palliser Road, West Kensington.

Mr Davis had managed the five-star Park Lane hotel, The Grosvenor House hotel, and owned property in London and Spain.

When his former partner died in 1995 he inherited a three-storey apartment block in West Kensington and lived on the top floor.

The court heard Mr Davis’s health worries continued in the months leading up to his murder.

After the check up at the end of 2001, a form of ‘pre-cancer’ tissue was detected, which could have led to another bout of the disease, jurors heard.

Mr Emberton, who works at Princess Grace Hospital, in London, said: ‘He had to be administered BCG, the same treatment people are given against tuberculosis.

‘The BCG was inserted into his bladder via a catheter once a week for six weeks.

‘Further tests in April and June, 2002, showed there was no cancer in his bladder.

‘

A month after Mr Davis was given the good news, Mertens turned up at the apartment with Billia after they had spent the night together.

Police were called to the address by Mr Davis who complained Billia was ‘invading his privacy.

‘

Minutes later Mr Davis was throttled in his own bed, jurors have heard.

Billia was arrested at his flat in Denbigh Street, Pimlico, and Mr Davis’ pnds stlg 3,000 Rolex Oyster was found at his bedside.

Police Sergeant Jonathan Philips, who arrested Mertens on July 1, 2002, told jurors he was weeping and gibbering when he found him at the Pimlico flat.

He said: ‘He was crying and appeared very upset.

He was bare-chested and had a couple of injuries on his face.

‘I took Mr Mertens out of the bedroom and across the landing to a kitchen.

‘He was smelling of drink and his speech was slurred.

He kept holding his head in his hands and banged his fists on the wall behind him.

‘He said: ”They have killed my uncle Phil” and ”I went to bed with him.

”

‘There was a small blood-stain on his arm.

‘He was moving around and I had problems keeping him still.

‘

Sergeant Philips arrested Mertens when he refused to give a reason for his lover’s death, the court heard.

Mertens, of [274] Furlong Drive, Slough, and Billia, of [75] Denbigh Street, Pimlico, deny murder on July 1 last year.

The trial continues.

ends