"Saud was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering Bandar Abdulaziz in a 'brutal' assault at their five-star hotel suite.

Mr Abdulaziz

The prince was fuelled by champagne and 'sex on the beach' cocktails when he bit the 32-year-old hard on both cheeks during the attack in February.

They had just returned from a Valentine's Day night out when Saud launched the ferocious assault.

When he was arrested he at first wrongly believed he had diplomatic immunity but his special status as a Saudi royal could not save him from British justice.

The 34-year-old, a member of one of the world's richest and most powerful dynasties, was found guilty of murder today by the jury after just one hour and 35 minutes of deliberation.

Saud showed no reaction as the decision was announced.

The verdict means a lengthy jail term for the prince and the end to his luxury playboy lifestyle, funded by his wealthy family, in which he dined in fine restaurants and secretly entertained gay escorts in his plush hotel room.

In court his lawyers tried to cover up evidence of his homosexuality.

If he ever returns to his home country he faces the possibility of execution - not because of the killing but because being homosexual is a capital offence there.

The murder of Mr Abdulaziz was the final act in a "deeply abusive" master-servant relationship in which the prince carried out frequent attacks on his aide "for his own personal gratification".

Jurors heard that by the early hours of February 15, Mr Abdulaziz was left so worn down and injured - having suffered a "cauliflower" ear and swollen eye from previous assaults - that he simply let Saud kill him without a fight.

...The prince also claimed he was heterosexual and had a girlfriend in Saudi Arabia, but he had booked appointments with at least two male escorts and one gay masseur, and looked at hundreds of images of men on gay websites. "