‘Battered to death by debt stricken businessman’

A businessman bludgeoning a Russian woman to death to try and pay off his £120,000 debt, a court heard. Armen Aristakesyan, 42, allegedly murdered Serafima Mashaka, 58, after learning she kept a ‘significant quantity of cash’ in her west London apartment. Ms Mashaka, known to her friends as ‘Sima’, suffered multiple head injuries and was found dead in her shower Armenian Aristakesyan had met Ms Mashaka through his girlfriend Kseniya and the pair had become very close, jurors heard. Ms…