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Man guilty over Carole Waugh murder | Man guilty over Carole Waugh murder |
(35 minutes later) | |
A man has been found guilty of murdering a woman who was stabbed in the neck in her flat in central London and her body hidden in a car boot. | A man has been found guilty of murdering a woman who was stabbed in the neck in her flat in central London and her body hidden in a car boot. |
Carole Waugh, 50, was reported missing from her Marylebone home in May 2012. Her body was found in a rented garage in New Malden on 2 August. | Carole Waugh, 50, was reported missing from her Marylebone home in May 2012. Her body was found in a rented garage in New Malden on 2 August. |
Rakesh Bhayani, 41, who had been accused of taking about £1m of her assets, was convicted of murder. | |
Nicholas Kutner, 48, was cleared of the same charge at the Old Bailey. | |
Escort work | Escort work |
Bhayani, from Wembley, north-west London, had previously admitted conspiracy to defraud Ms Waugh and perverting the course of justice by concealing her death. | |
Kutner, from Kentish Town, north London, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice by concealing Ms Waugh's death. He had already admitted conspiracy to defraud. | |
Both men will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Thursday. | |
During the trial, prosecutors told the jury that "the evidence strongly suggests" Ms Waugh was stabbed in the neck at home on 16 April last year. | |
The court heard the former oil company worker was lonely and had been looking for love in the months before her death, as well as working as an escort. | |
She considered Bhayani a friend and had visited him in prison, lending him about £40,000, the court heard. | |
A third defendant, Elie Khoury, told police that Bhayani was "all about fraud" and used to get money from Ms Waugh and at one point suddenly started getting much more. | |
Estate agent witness Amit Khagram told the court Bhayani owed him £17,000 and Ms Waugh owed him between £30,000 and £40,000, and said that after 16 April 2012 he was repaid. | |
Mr Khagram said he received text messages from Ms Waugh's phone arranging for the pair to meet near her flat to give him his money. | |
But each time he went he received a message from her mobile to say she could not see him but had instead given the cash to a friend, whom he then collected it from. | |
He said Bhayani told him Ms Waugh had moved out of London to care for her sick mother. | |
Mr Khoury, 40, of Spring Street, Paddington, central London, was found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud. | |
Mr Justice Wilkie deferred sentencing to enable Ms Waugh's family to attend. | |
He said: "I am particularly aware that the family of Carole Waugh are not in attendance and that it should be desirable that they should be present." |