Debt-ridden PhD student killed elderly couple

Debt-ridden Odai Salah, 29, stabbed and suffocated disabled Maurece Smith and stabbed his partner Rosemary Windle, both 71, in January this year.

The Glasgow Caledonian University PhD student was 170,000 in debt and was being chased by creditors.

Desperate Salah went to the couple's flat in Torquay, Devon, and,

unable to convince them to part with cash, he murdered them.

He then took their cheque books and credit cards to help to pay off debts. He went back to their flat at least twice to ensure he was still in the clear to use them.

The victims' families, police and the judge all condemned Salah for his callousness and brutality.

During the three-week trial at Exeter Crown Court, the jury heard Salah had got to know the couple the previous year when he tried to do business with them through his failed Lebanese food and wine company.

Mrs Windle had a successful business selling linen and other goods to wealthy clients in the Middle East.

Prosecutor Paul Dunkels QC said: "This was a cold-blooded execution by the defendant of an elderly couple in order to get money from them."

After murdering the couple, he went to a bank in Exeter and tried to pay a forged cheque for 27,000 into his own account.

Minutes later he went into another bank and tried to pay in another forged cheque.

The next day he posed as Mr Smith over the telephone to try to pay a 4,658 debt. He even used one of Mr Smith's cards to pay after his car was clamped.

Three days after the murders, the police were alerted by relatives concerned that they had not been able to get in touch with the couple.

Police found Mr Smith's body in an armchair with a broken knife blade under his body. Mrs Windle's body was found on the garage floor covered by a blanket.

Salah, of Torquay, denied two counts of murder but the jury took less than three hours to convict him.