Two men convicted of murdering Louise Kam

A chef and a delivery driver have been convicted of murdering a 71-year-old woman after a plan to plunder her life savings went wrong.

The body of Louise Kam had been concealed in a wheelie bin and was found at an address in Barnet on August 1 2021. 

Mohamed El Abboud, 28, from Barnet, and Kusai Al-Jundi, 24, from Harrow, were today unanimously found guilty of her murder by a jury at the Central Criminal Court. 

Ms Kam disappeared in July 2021 after she was last seen by a family member near the Spires shopping centre in north London.

She had told a friend that she was due to meet Al-Jundi and a solicitor at one of her properties in order to finalise a sale.

Al-Jundi, a chef, had spent the previous months trying to convince Ms Kam into signing over control of her finances, as well as the two properties that she owned in Barnet and Willesden.

On 26 July 2021, she arrived at her house in Barnet expecting to finalise the sale of the property.

Unknown to Ms Kam, there were never any funds available to complete the purchase and a plan had been hatched to kill her that afternoon and assume control of her property.

In an attempt to cover up the murder, Al-Jundi used Ms Kam’s own mobile phone to message her friends and family pretending she had gone on holiday.

He also messaged them from his own phone claiming that she had defrauded him.

While this deception was ongoing, El-Abboud arranged to sell Ms Kam’s BMW car.

The police were soon able to arrest both defendants following a review of Ms Kam's movements after she was reported missing by family and friends. 

Forensic work linked El-Abboud to a hairdryer flex which had been used to strangle Ms Kam and her DNA was recovered on his clothing. 

Al-Jundi’s DNA was discovered on gloves and a bin bag which were recovered with Ms Kam’s body.

El-Abboud and Al-Jundi will be sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 1 February. 

Catherine Gould, CPS prosecutor, said: “This horrific crime is a tale of greed taken to extremes. Kusai Al-Jundi and Mohammed El-Abboud selfishly and brutally ended Louise Kam’s life for their own ends.

“These defendants hatched a plan to kill Louise and profit from her death.

Al-Jundi sent false text messages purporting to be from Louise to her family and friends claiming that she had left the country and even had the audacity to claim that she had defrauded him at a time when he knew full well that she had been killed.

“El-Abboud confessed to a friend that he had killed Louise but denied this at trial. We are grateful that the jury saw through his lies.  The police worked quickly to establish that Louise had come to harm and to secure the evidence to present a strong and compelling case to put before the jury.

“Our thoughts remain with Louise’s family and friends and we sincerely hope that these guilty verdicts will bring them some comfort.”