UAE sisters attacked in London hotel lose appeal for compensation in UK court

Three Emirati sisters, who suffered horrific injuries during a burglary at the Cumberland Hotel in 2014, have lost their bid for compensation, despite apparently citing 30 flaws in security within the London hotel which they argued could have prevented the attack.

Fatima, Khulood and Ohoud Al Najjar from Abu Dhabi, were attacked in the Cumberland Hotel, off Oxford Street, in April 2014 by Philip Spence, then 33. Spence was convicted on three counts of attempted murder and jailed for life for the attack.

Spence attacked the three sisters with a claw hammer and left Ohoud with life-changing brain injuries. Khulood described her sister’s condition saying that “yes, she’s alive, but she’s only breathing. She has no quality of life. She lost her eye, she cannot express herself, she’s not talking any more.”

The sisters tried to sue the hotel on grounds that it had failed in its duty of care to its guests. Apparently Spence was able to walk through the lobby at 1.13am unchallenged as he took the lift to the 7th floor and entered their room where the attack took place.

During the case, evidence is said to have been presented showing a series of failures to protect guests in the years prior to the attack. However a British judge dismissed the case but granted them permission to appeal against the decision.

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On Friday, Lord Justice McCombe, dismissed their appeal saying: “I do not see that his [the judge’s] final conclusion that [on the basis of the primary facts found by him] there was not a breach of the duty alleged, can be faulted.”

The family is said to have cited 30 flaws in security at the hotel and had appealed on the grounds that lobby security guard Wasif Zafar had failed to challenge Spence.

The girls’ mother, Kedhaya Al Mulla, previously told The National that the ordeal had been a death sentence for the family.

“Overnight, this man has sentenced us to death. He didn’t just harm my daughters, he destroyed all our lives. It feels like we have been buried alive. This house we are in is our coffin,” she said.

The sisters have had dozens of operations to repair the damage to their faces and bodies and spent ten months in a London hospital.

All three suffer epilepsy and post-traumatic stress.