Strangled, thrown into a wheelie bin and covered with garden waste

A killer dumped a millionaire’s body in a wheelie bin and filled it with garden trimmings and turf before leaving it outside his family home, a court has heard.

Chef Kusai Al-Jundi, 28, and delivery driver Mohammed El-Abboud, 24, allegedly murdered Louise Kam, 71, after trying to gain control of her finances and London properties.

Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow, KC, told the court how police found the wheelie bin at Al-Jundi’s home in Wood End Road, Harrow, northwest London, on 29 July last year.

On the morning after Mrs Kam’s death, Al-Jundi paid £60 each to three workmen to bring a van to her £1.3m three-bedroom semi-detached home in Gallants Farm Road, East Barnet.

El-Abboud was living there after the pair occupied the property, the Old Bailey has heard.

He directed the removal men to move a large wheelie bin at the end of the garden beside the shed.

Mr Glasgow said: ‘When they asked Mohammed El-Abboud why it was so heavy, he told them that it was because it contained soil.

‘He neglected to mention the dead body that he and Kusai Al-Jundi had buried beneath the turf and soil in the early hours of the previous night.

‘About 20 minutes later, after they had loaded everything, including the wheelie bin, into the back of the van they set off for Kusai Al-Jundi’s family home in Harrow.

‘They left the rubbish and the wheelie bin on the drive, despite the objections of the family, who rang Kusai Al-Jundi to complain.’

CCTV footage played in court from outside Al-Jundi’s family home showed the three workmen struggling to move the wheelie bin out of a large white van.

El-Abboud, who did not help move the bin because he was on the phone to his mother, was overheard saying: ‘F–k Kusai, he is getting me into trouble, he has destroyed my life.’

At the house in Gallants Farm Road police found clothes matching those El-Abboud was wearing on the day Mrs Kam had been to her house for the final time.

A black top was covered with her blood and hairdryer was found in the side hedge of the rear garden with the electrical cord broken.

At Al-Jundi’s family home in Harrow, police found a t-shirt with Mrs Kam’s DNA and identified the unusually heavy wheelie bin.

Mr Glasgow said: ‘They noticed the first quarter was filled with garden trimmings and turf. Rather than more turf found beneath it, they found a duvet and protruding from the top of it appeared to be a foot wrapped in plastic.

‘When officers peeled back the duvet, wrapped inside was an object wrapped in duct tape. It was immediately apparent to the police officer that this was a body.

‘The body of Louise Kam was identified from dental records and blood staining on the outside and inside surfaces of the bin was found to contain DNA that matched Louise Kam’s.

‘Her head had been wrapped in three black plastic bags. Her body had been wrapped in a duvet and her feet and lower legs had been wrapped in two black plastic bags and taped up.’

Two pairs of disposable gloves were found in the bin, three of the gloves had DNA matching that of El-Abboud. Two matched Al-Jundi.

Mr Glasgow said steps to conceal her body must have required more than one person to complete the job, with markings in the house suggesting the bin was moved into the house to put Mrs Kam’s body in it, then moved back outside to be filled with a heavy bag of turf from Thompsons.

Mr Glasgow condemned the treatment of her body as ‘appalling’ and the manner of her death ‘shocking’.

A pathologist report concluded that Mrs Kam suffered multiple bruising, a fractured spine and blunt impact to the head during a struggle or collapse.

Al-Jundi attempted to provide an alibi by attending his solicitor’s office and explaining to him that Mrs Kam’s friends and family believed he was involved in her disappearance, the court heard.

Mr Glasgow said this was futile because ‘he was the one person with the best motive to want her dead, he was there when she was killed, or just before, and had ordered the killing.’

Police arrested El-Abboud at Gallants Farm Road on suspicion of the theft of Mrs Kam’s car
on 28 July.

When questioned by police he said that Al-Jundi had provided him with the accommodation and that Mrs Kam had not been at the address on 26 or 28 July.

He denied killing her and when asked where she was he replied: ‘I don’t know’.

The morning after the delivery to his parents’ home, Al-Jundi was arrested at the Yasmeen Sham Restaurant in Willesden on suspicion of kidnapping Mrs Kam on 29 July.

Asked where she might be, Al-Jundi replied: ‘I don’t know exactly’.

El-Abboud, whose last address was Gallants Farm Road, Barnet, and Kusai Al-Jundi, of Wood End Road, Harrow, both deny Ms Kam’s murder.

Mrs Kam’s son Gregory Kam told the court he was in hospital and suffering from Covid-19 at the time his mother went missing.

He became increasingly worried when he received a suspicious text from her number that was in fact Al-Jundi.

Mr Kam said: ‘She wouldn’t begin a message with “mum”. Her grammatical English would be a lot better. She wouldn’t repeat words.’

Mrs Kam was a very successful businesswoman involved in selling meat imports and exports from China and the Middle East.

She previously ran a catering equipment business with her ex-husband Frank from her Willesden property.

Mr Kam said Al-Jundi had offered ‘millions’ to his mother for the sale of her properties which tempted her because she wanted to help him and his younger brother, Richard, buy a house.

‘We were house-hunting at the time and she was offering to help make that purchase. We had looked at estate agents and viewings,’ he said.

Al-Jundi had told Mr Kam that he had the money because of his affair with his rich girlfriend ‘Anna’ who lived in Switzerland.

Al-Jundi also claimed to own five properties in Knightsbridge, Kensington, Wembley and Borehamwood.

The son was alarmed after one meeting with Al-Jundi when he saw three documents, one of which signed by Louise Kam, which would transfer her property to Al-Jundi.

‘He was telling me don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine, this is normal procedure.

‘But I wasn’t 100 per cent happy with him. There was a process of delays at some point I felt there was something wrong.

‘This person Anna is a rich person, but you never get to see them. I messaged my dad and said this is not right… I was suspicious.’

The trial continues.