A delivery driver who murdered a vulnerable 71-year-old divorcee after attempting to ensnare her in a romance fraud danced in TikTok videos with the model who later turned on him to become the prosecution’s key witness.
Mohammed El-Abboud, 28, was today jailed alongside mastermind Kusai Al-Jundi, 25, for at least 35 years each.
The duo tricked Louise Kam, 71, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, into signing power of attorney documents which they thought would give them control of her multi-million property portfolio.
Al-Jundi initially tried to woo Mrs Kam into signing her estate over to him, promising he loved her. When that didn’t work, he encouraged El-Abboud to strangle her with his hairdryer lead at a business meeting after they promised to buy the properties for £6 million.
The plot was foiled when El-Abboud confessed to Al-Jundi’s girlfriend, Maria Amariucai, who later became a key prosecution witness. The pair often appeared together in El-Abboud’s TikTok videos, dancing around Mrs Kam’s luxury home in Gallants Farm Road Barnet, as if it were their own.
Romanian delivery driver Mohammed El-Abboud, 28, has been jailed for at least 35 years
In one video, El-Abboud is seen smacking Ms Amariucai on the bottom, while she twerks in another that was filmed just two weeks before Mrs Kam was killed. El-Abboud shows off his muscles to the camera in the same clip.
Mastermind Al-Jundi, a father-of-three who lived with his parents, celebrated the killing by buying his girlfriend a pair of diamond earrings worth £580.
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow told the court this was ‘a generous gift for someone who had no money, but he no doubt believed that, with Louise Kam dead and armed with a signed power of attorney, he was in possession of two valuable properties.
El-Abboud posted frequently on TikTok, even sharing a video in which he repeatedly thrust his groin towards the camera on the last day Mrs Kam was seen alive.
Her body was hidden in a wheelie bin as Al-Jundi tried to stall her frantic family by sending them messages from her phone, pretending she had gone to China.
But the body was found at his parents’ home and the pair turned on each other in court, blaming each other for the cold-blooded killing in a so-called ‘cut throat’ defence.
Both men sobbed in the dock as they were convicted by the jury in January.
They were both jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years before they can be considered by parole by the Recorder of London Judge Mark Lucraft today.
Al-Jundi was described in court as a ‘Walter Mitty’ character who boasted he was a millionaire with a string of beautiful girlfriends.
In fact, he was a penniless cook griddling shish kebabs at the Yasmeen Shamin restaurant on Willesden High Road, where he saw every wealthy elderly women customer as a potential victim.
El-Abboud posted videos of him and girlfriend Maria Amariucai showing off their dance moves at Ms Lam’s property in Barnet
Louise Kam, 71, was strangled to death by the pair in a bid to steal her multi-million pound property portfolio
He had stolen two cars from one woman in her sixties after declaring his undying love for her.
Al-Jundi told Mrs Kam he loved her too, hoping she would sign her property portfolio over to him. He and El-Abboud, described in court as ‘homeless’, killed her when she refused.
Mrs Kam was a divorcee who had a business premises and a block of flats near Al-Jundi’s restaurant. She owned those properties outright, but had a mortgage on the house in Barnet and lived in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.
Mrs Kam wanted to sell the properties to give money to her children and Al-Jundi offered her £6 million, far above the market value.
He told her his backer was a woman called ‘Anna’ and Mrs Kam was even sent voice-note messages purportedly coming from her.
‘Anna’ was in fact Anna Reich – a restaurant customer who had already fallen victim of Kusai Al-Jundi’s dishonesty.
She agreed to sell him her two cars, a Toyota Rav 4 and an Audi TT for £57,000. Although the vehicles were handed over, Mrs Reich never saw a penny of the money.
Al-Jundi sent her messages telling her: ‘I love you, I want you. Anna, no one else is inside my heart. I love you because I want you, yes I need you, every time I need you.’
In a second video, the pair were seen twerking in the very house Ms Kam would be murdered in
Mrs Kam had given Al-Jundi the keys and he allowed El-Abboud to move in, allowing him to film the videos
Mrs Reich said: ‘He has been psychologically manipulating me all this time. He never paid me a penny.’
Al-Jundi wanted Mrs Reich to be a stooge to help him con Mrs Kam, but she refused when he asked her to come to meetings to act as an ‘interpreter.’
Thinking he was going to buy the house in Barnet Mrs Kam had given Al-Jundi the keys and he allowed El-Abboud to move in.
The court heard El-Abboud was dazzled by Al-Jundi, who promised him a fortune and gave him Mrs Reich’s Audi TT.
El-Abboud had been in the country a couple of months and had no right to work but had found employment as a Deliveroo rider and a warehouse worker at Disney in Coventry.
Ms Amariucai, a Romanian national and part-time model who became a key prosecution witness in the case, was at the house in Barnet when Mrs Kam arrived, thinking Al-Jundi and El-Abboud were about to make her a very wealthy woman.
Mrs Kam had driven her BMW to her four-bedroom semi-detached home, thinking a lawyer would be there to finalise the property deal.
But as she sat in a chair the killers approached her from behind and El-Abboud strangled her.
She was also hit over the head with a blunt object before her body was wrapped in bin bags and a duvet and bundled into the bin outside her home where it was covered with garden waste.
Mohamed El-Abboud (pictured in red) can be seen in video footage showed to the court helping unload the wheelie bin with Ms Kam’s remains in and leaving it on Al-Jundi’s family’s drive
El-Abboud appeared to enjoy showing off his muscles to his fans on video-sharing site TikTok
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow told the court: ‘Louise Kam was the victim of a careful and cunning plan by Kusai Al-Jundi to defraud her.
‘When that plan did not work out as planned, he and Mohamed El-Abboud killed her.
‘The two of them then set about trying to cover up her murder and doubtless they assumed they would be able to profit in some way from her death.’
On the morning after Mrs Kam’s death, Al-Jundi paid £60 each to a group of workmen to bring a van to move the bin to his family’s home on Wood End Road, in Harrow, northwest London.
El-Abboud advertised Mrs Kam’s black BMW 3 Series convertible on his Facebook account and sold it to an unsuspecting buyer, pretending it was his own car.
‘It would seem that he was celebrating, but the shopping trip had a dual purpose.
‘Not only was he treating his girlfriend to gifts that would impress her, but this must have been a very public attempt to provide an alibi.’
Later that day El-Abboud drove Ms Amariucai back to Coventry and confessed to being the one who had strangled her to death.
The morning after Mrs Kam’s death, Al-Jundi paid £60 each to a group of workmen to bring a van to move the bin to his family’s home on Wood End Road
Mrs Kam was found hidden inside this wheelie bin after it was dumped at her killer’s parents’ house
One of the callous videos showed Mohamed El-Abboud, 28, gyrating to music in the driveway of Louise Kam’s £1.3 million rental property
‘He said he could not really believe that he had killed that lady,’ Ms Amariucai told the jury.
‘He told me it was to do with a business agreement between the Chinese woman and Kusai.
‘He said he (El-Abboud) had taken her from behind. He said Kusai told him to kill the Chinese woman. Kusai was going to give him a share of the money.’
Three days after the murder, police found Mrs Kam’s body at the house in Wood End Road, Harrow, where Al-Jundi was living with his mum and dad.
‘Upon closer inspection the police could see the outline of a shoe wrapped in plastic, which was in turn wrapped in a duvet cover,’ Mr Glasgow said.
‘It became clear there were human remains inside the bin.
This Audi TT was another vehicle stolen by the two men who turned to crime in an attempt to make money
‘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.’
A pathologist found Mrs Kam had suffered multiple bruising, a fractured spine and blunt impact to the head during a struggle or collapse.
Al-Jundi, of Wood End Road, Harrow, and El-Abboud, whose last address was Gallants Farm Road, Barnet, both denied Ms Kam’s murder but were convicted.
The chef did not give evidence and El-Abboud said he was asleep in the house when Mrs Kam was murdered.
Today Al-Jundi, wearing a white suit jacket and tie and El-Abboud, wearing a white shirt and tie, showed no emotion as the Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft told the pair: ‘The only sentence that can be passed on you is one of life imprisonment.
‘This is an offence that is extensively planned and premeditated. You [El-Abboud] along with Al-Jundi did what you did out of greed.’
Romanian national and model Maria Amariucai was prominent in several TikTok videos, and later became a key prosecution witness
Gregory Kam said in a statement read to the court that his mother Louise ‘fell for the lies of this wolf in sheep’s clothing’.
He said: ‘Since the date of July 26th 2021 and the moment, I received a surprise phone call that my mother had gone missing, to the subsequent news of her murder, my family and I were left in total disbelief.
‘My mother’s sudden loss has left us all feeling extremely shocked, numb, sad and grief-stricken – feelings that we will continue to be overshadowed by for a very long time to come.
‘One of the unpleasant memories I have of the murderer which sometimes returns to me in flashbacks is sharing a car journey with him and my mother, in his 4×4 as he politely discussed his business deal.
‘Looking back on this now, part of my treatment with the counsellor is treating the guilt I have felt from not being able to have been there at the time, or doing enough at the time, to prevent this from happening to my mother.
‘I deeply regret I was not able to do enough at the time to prevent my mother from falling for the lies of this wolf in sheep’s clothing.
‘In addition to the initial shocking news of our mother’s disappearance and subsequent news of her murder, I was not only shocked but later angered and sickened to discover he enlisted the help of an accomplice to trick, entrap, overpower and murder a pension-age woman in her own home, under the guise of what was supposed to be a business deal.
‘I hope that these two murderers justifiably receive their due punishment for murdering an innocent civilian, my mother, and leaving my family and I to relive over this sad and tragic loss for the rest of our lives.’
Mr Kam confirmed he is receiving regular counselling sessions to treat his post-traumatic stress and flashbacks ‘both real and reality-based’ of what happened to his mother.
Kambiz Rohany, a close friend, said in a statement read to the court: ‘I cannot find words that will express the grief I bear. My life without Louise doesn’t have any meaning. I will end my days as a lonely and broken man.
‘I cannot shake the anxiety I lived through looking for her when she disappeared; my worry about receiving responses to my messages that were not how she communicated with me; my desperation trying to find her.
‘Louise was everything to me, my beloved partner. Louise loved and cared for me. We share our time enjoying each other’s company and planning things together and, in her kindness, she also supported me financially.
‘I am now a lonely and broken man, physically unwell, depressed, and unable to sleep. My thoughts are with my dear Louise, I miss her.
‘My angel Louise loved and cared for so many; so many. Her disabled eldest son has been left without a loving mother. So many miss her too.
‘Time doesn’t heal. Now and for the rest of our lives, I and all that loved her, will live knowing of the brutality she suffered, to her last breath, the disregard of her remains, where no pity or mercy was had.’
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