City banker guilty of murdering escort by bludgeoning her to death with a pestle

A City banker has been found guilty of murdering an escort after he bludgeoned her to death with a pestle on her 29th birthday in a champagne and cocaine-fuelled attack.

Zahid Naseem, 48, struck Christina Abbotts 13 times on the back of the head with the large, ceramic kitchen utensil in a prolonged and brutal attack.

Ms Abbotts had more than 30 injuries all over her body when she was found in a flat where she was housesitting for a friend in Crawley, West Sussex.

The jury of eight men and four women took about four hours to return the verdict at Lewes Crown Court. Naseem showed little emotion as the guilty verdict was read out.

After he killed Mr Abbotts Naseem stayed in the flat for 12 hours after her death – drinking, taking drugs and sending pornographic pictures and videos to other escorts.

He pretended to be unconscious and unable to remember what had happened when police forced their way into the flat the following day.

The killer was found lying on a sofa naked apart from a dressing gown, surrounded by half-drunk glasses of alcohol, drugs paraphernalia and underwear.

Paramedics were convinced he was play acting, but he only woke up fully when he was arrested in hospital, claiming to have no idea what happened.

The freelance risk management consultant, who earned up to £250,000 a year and had previously worked for investment bank Merrill Lynch, initially claimed he could not remember the incident or knew how she died when he was interviewed by police.

When he gave evidence in court, he admitted striking Ms Abbotts but claimed it was in self-defence as he feared she was strangling him to death in a sex game gone wrong. He also said a “red mist” may have come over him.

The victim Ms Abbotts, who was born in the West Midlands, was described as a “socialite” who led a party lifestyle in London, mixing with “posh” and wealthy friends, and telling relatives she worked in IT.

But secretly she advertised her services on site AdultWork.com under the pseudonym Tilly Pexton.

Naseem was working for Toronto-Dominion Bank’s London office when he found her profile offering overnight rates from £1,000.

The pair were last seen in public on the evening of May 24 when Naseem met her in Crawley before spending the night together.

CCTV showed him standing in an Asda supermarket aisle kissing her on the forehead as they bought a bottle of Veuve-Clicquot champagne.

Worried friends started searching for her when she failed to turn up to her birthday party in South Kensington the next day.

The father of two young children, who lives in a £600,000 home in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, told the court he turned to escorts when the “whirlwind romance” with his partner fizzled out and they grew apart.

For the best part of a decade he hired sex workers, drank on an almost daily basis and took cocaine, telling the court the behaviour was common in the financial district.