Salah Abon Nour

Salah Abon Nour was found dead at a flat at Ellenborough House, White City Estate, Shepherds Bush.

One of his flatmates left the country soon after.

He was found wrapped up in a white sheet with bandages stuffed in his mouth and a bitten apple pressed under his chin.

Salah Nour was from Egypt and had been sharing the flat with two other men.

His inquest heard that his flat was bloodstained and that it was thought that he might have been tortured before he was murdred.

A pair of bloodstained handcuffs were also found in the flat.

A double bed in the flat was found to be lying on its end.

His body was covered with bruises and cuts, and a pathologist said:

One of his flatmates, an ex-journalist, was beleived to have left the country about the time of the killing, on 23 September 1984. A mini-cab driver told the police that he had taken the flatmate to Heathrow.

The third flatmate said that the missing flatmate had spoken of witchcraft. He said that one nght there was a fight, with screaming and bloodshed, and that he told the other two to get out as the neighbours were complaining.

He said that the missing flatmate later threatened to shoot him and pressed a gun against him and took him on a shopping trip to Shepherds Bush market and then to a house in Highgate, and that when he returned to the flat he found Salah Nour's body.

Salah Nour had been dead for about two days by that time.

A detective said that outside witnesses backed up the stories of guns and witchcraft, but noted that there was confusion over the dates.

The Coroner said: