As many as five victims may have been sexually accosted by a Saudi royal inside his massive Beverly Hills rental compound, The Daily Beast has learned from Los Angeles authorities.
When cops arrived at the residence along Wallingford Drive, in Beverly Hills, to check out a disturbance call that came in around 12:45 a.m. on Wednesday, they discovered a horde of people milling about in front of the $37 million, 22,000-square foot gated mansion.
After conducting interviews, the police officers arrested Majed Abulaziz Al-Saud, a 28-year-old Saudi prince, for allegedly trying to force at least one unidentified woman to perform oral sex against her will. What’s more, “four more victims allege the same crimes committed—including criminal threats [by Al-Saud],” an LAPD police spokesman told The Daily Beast, noting that all the alleged victims and witnesses who were interviewed said the alleged attacks occurred on the same day.
Meanwhile, a neighbor told the Los Angeles Times that upon returning home, he witnessed a bloodied woman (believed to work at the house as a caretaker) shimmying across an 8-foot wall and screaming for help.
Once arrested, the prince was held and then released on bail after paying $300,000. He’s due to appear before a judge on October 19.
The cops noted that the prince does not have the power to invoke diplomatic immunity but say they were still working with a consul liaison and the State Department to review his status.
A man who answered a phone call placed to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., said that personnel were off to recognize the holy holiday of Eid.
The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post each attempted and were unable to reach anybody at the embassy as well.
A State Department spokeswoman referred any questions of the sex attacks to the LAPD and in a statement said that so far they were unable to verify if the accused Saudi prince was immune from prosecution. “The Department does not currently have any information indicating that the individual in question enjoys immunity.”
Saudi royals have been unable to stay off the criminal radar in the recent past. There was the visit by Saudi Princess Buniah al Saud, who was hit with a civil lawsuit for allegedly pummeling and then pushing her Indonesian maid down the stairs of her Orlando townhouse. And back in April, a 27-year-old college student with Saudi royal ties was caught trying to hop the border in San Diego to make it to Mexico, allegedly to evade charges of raping a woman in Orem, Utah.
