A humble flat which became a scene of horror
Piled high with books, classical music CDs and mementos from far-flung destinations, the flat was his refuge from the busy London suburb.
It was in the attic of a converted large 19th century house at 19, Pond Street, opposite the suburb’s grim and grey 1970s Royal Free Hospital.
Mr Hendra, who was impoverished through illness, had once owned the much-better appointed first-floor flat but sold it to move into the cheaper one in the attic.
The flat was compact and in need of repair: the wallpaper in Mr Hendra’s bedroom was held on by sticky tape and showed signs of damp.
A private man who lived alone, he used to hold small gatherings in his home. But he was no great cook, according to friends, or essentially house proud.
This humble flat was where Mr Hendra invited Mark Papazian on the night of June 3 last year for what was simply meant to be a relaxing evening.
In his diary, Mr Hendra wrote for June 3: “Mark coming over later with a bottle of wine.”
The police photographs of the flat after that night are brutal in what they reveal. Lying flat in the lounge with a bean bag and a blanket over its head is the body of Mr Hendra, purposefully laid out by Papazian in a crucifixion position.
The body is next to the green armchair Mr Hendra was sitting in when Papazian struck him over the head with a hammer.
Pools and trails of blood surround the corpse as if someone had emptied a bottle of red wine on the carpet. Papazian had slit the man’s throat with a hunting knife for, as he would later say, “an easy death”.
Other forensic photographs, which are taken as a matter of course at crime scenes, show a blood smear on a doorpost and knives in kitchen sink of dirty water.
In the background of all these badly lit pictures is an ordinary flat belonging to a humble man who had simply sought a moment’s company one night in London.
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