Couple guilty of ‘savage’ murder of Irish landlady, 93

AN estate agent and her young lover are facing life imprisonment after being found guilty of the “savage” murder of their 93-year-old Irish-born landlady.

The pair, who hoped to get their hands on Bridget Skehan's £300,000 home, attacked the devout churchgoer and former socialite after she invited them in for a Christmas drink.

Inner London Crown Court heard the callous couple punched and stamped on the retired interior designer, before beating her with her walking sticks.

They then dumped her blood-spattered body in a cardboard box and left it in an outhouse.

Neither Nimpha Ong, aged 49, nor former terrorist suspect Ahmed Al-Haddad, aged 24, showed any emotion as the two-woman, 10-man jury took 35 minutes to convict them of the elderly woman's murder on December 29, 2002.

The court heard that Mrs Skehan Bridie to friends was born in Templemore, Co Tipperary, in 1909.

She later moved to London and soon became a highly sought after interior designer. Regarded as something of an "it" girl in the '50s, she had a passion for large American cars and often arrived to appointments in one.

She married and divorced twice and then some 17 years ago inherited a four-bedroom, mansion block apartment from an aunt in Seymour Street, Bayswater, central London.

By then long retired, she decided to let some of her rooms. It was a move that ultimately led to her death. Outside court, case officer Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton expressed his "happiness" at the jury's unanimous convictions.

He said the couple's victim, was a "much-loved lady" who, despite her age, continued to play an active role in both the local community and her church.

"It is a genuine tragedy that her long and colourful life ended in this way.

"Whether their motive was greed or anger we may never know, but what is certain is Ong and Al-Haddad are callous and brutal killers who have properly been convicted of a truly horrific crime," he added.

The pair, who accused each other of being the real culprit, will be sentenced today when Judge Jonathan Van Der Werff will impose mandatory life terms.

The jury heard her murderers met two years before they killed her. Al-Haddad, an Iranian national, was painting a flat, mother-of-one Ong was selling with her property developer husband.

Although young enough to be her son, he became "obsessed" with the woman and quickly became her toy boy lover. Then, in 2001, they paid a visit to her native Philippines.

Unfortunately for Ong, Al-Haddad was travelling on the passport of a known terrorist and both were arrested. They were held for a year, and on their release returned to Britain. Still infatuated with each other despite their incarceration, and now homeless, Al-Haddad and recently divorced Ong became Mrs Skehan's newest tenants.

Quite why they did not get on will probably never be known, but not long after they moved in she gave them notice to quit. Two days before they were due to leave they murdered her.

Brian Altman, prosecuting, said the only known motive emerged in Al-Haddad's interview. "If what he had to say was credible and accurate, Bridget Skehan was killed so the defendants could get their hands on the title documents or the lease to her property ... sell the flat and live off the proceeds."

What was beyond dispute, however, was that she was "killed by a gratuitously savage attack" after she offered them a Christmas drink.