Law student ‘killed couple for money’

Odai Salah, 29, lied to his victims persuading them he was a successful businessmen with links in the Middle East.

Exeter Crown Court heard that Salah, who denies two counts of murder, was in fact a married law student at Glasgow Caledonian University.  According to the university’s website, Jordan-born Salah was doing a PhD in the main research area of alternative dispute resolution “with a special focus on mandatory employment arbitration systems in the United Kingdom and the Middle East”.

Rosemary Windle and Maurece Smith were stabbed to death on 8 January this year in Torquay, where Salah was living at the time.  He had earlier met Mr Smith through shared interests in wine, and business activities in the Middle East. The court was told Salah saw the couple as an opportunity to get money and, after killing them, took their cheque books and credit cards and valuable belongings.

The court heard that Salah first came to the UK from Jordan in 2003 as a student.  It is understood he took an LLM, Master of International Laws, Oxford Brookes University.  His trial continues.