The lawyer for a Saudi prince accused of murder today denied that he and the alleged victim were in a gay relationship.
Jurors have heard that Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud killed Bandar Abdulaziz (32) in the London hotel room they shared in February this year.
Prosecutors allege that it was a ferocious attack which had a "sexual element".
Dobomir Dimitrov, a porter from the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, central London, who went to the men's room during their stay, said: "I would describe them as a gay couple."
But the prince’s barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, said in cross-examination: “It is not accepted that this was in fact a gay couple - but I readily accept that you had the impression they were a gay couple.”
Mr Dimitrov, who is gay himself, said they were not behaving like two heterosexual men in the way that they were hanging up their clothes in colour-coded order on hangers he brought to the room.
He said of the taller of the two men, who was black: "It was impossible not to notice that he was homosexual."
Mr Kelsey-Fry said: "You had an effeminate gay man sharing a room with another man and colour coding their clothing?" "Yes," Mr Dimitrov replied.
"That is why you were led to the impression of them being a gay couple?" asked Mr Kelsey-Fry.
"Yes," the witness answered.
The prince (34) admits killing Mr Abdulaziz but denies murder and a separate charge of grievous bodily harm with intent relating to an alleged assault in a lift at the hotel weeks before.
Reuters