Son of Brick Lane bagel tycoon describes moment he found mum and sister’s lifeless body after they were ‘battered to death with meat tenderiser by his brother’
Joshua Cohen, 28, allegedly stabbed mum Louise, 66, and sister Hannah, 33, at their £2.5million house in Golders Green, north London
A BAGEL tycoon's son today described the moment he found his mum and sister's lifeless bodies after his brother allegedly battered them with a meat tenderiser.
Joshua Cohen, 28, is accused of repeatedly stabbing Louise Cohen, 66, and sister Hannah, 33, in the basement of their £2.5million house in Golders Green, north London, in August last year.
The Cohen family are the owners of Beigel Bake, a world-renowned 24-hour bakery in Brick Lane, east London, which was co-founded by Joshua Cohen's late father Asher.
Joshua used to work at the bagel shop but "he was causing issues with customers", the Old Bailey heard today.
His brother Nathan Cohen, 31, told the court Joshua had moved into the annex because he had become "abusive" and was "stealing".
On August 11, 2017, Nathan had been working at shop all day before returning home to catch the second half of a football match.
He told jurors that when he arrived, there were bloody footprints starting in the kitchen leading to the basement door.
Nathan added: "'There was red footprints leading to the end of the kitchen.
"I noticed there was lots of footsteps, I initially didn't realise what they were but I came to realise it was blood.
"I began to panic, I was thinking, 'what's going on here?' and I went downstairs to the basement.
"I saw my mum and my sister lying on the floor in a big pool of blood."
Nathan held back tears as he recounted finding his mother and sister.
"I went over to my mother and I was tapping her like, 'Mum! Mum!'
I looked over to my sister and I did the same thing to her and she was very pale. It was obvious what happened."
Nathan said there was no response from either his mother or his sister but he dialled 999 straight away, hoping they might still be saved.
The court heard a meat tenderiser could have been used to cause some of the injuries to Louise Cohen.
Pathologist Dr Charlotte Randall said a stab wound to Louise's head was so fierce the tip of the knife had snapped off.
Louise also suffered fractures of the right frontal bone to the forehead, left eye socket, left cheek bone, left upper jaw, nose and left thumb.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Joshua, the youngest of five children, leaving the single-storey garden annex at 8.20pm.
He walked up to the front of the house before knocking on the window of his mother's bedroom, the court heard.
The two of them went into the room and a few minutes later they met Hannah in the kitchen, jurors heard.
"Hannah and Louise Cohen never appeared on the CCTV footage again," said prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse QC.
She added: "In the next few minutes both of them were stabbed to death in the basement of the house."
A post mortem revealed mother-of-five Louise had suffered 13 stab wounds to her head, face, neck, trunk and right arm, as well as several defensive wounds to her hands.
Hannah Cohen died from a stab wound to the neck that cut through the right carotid artery and she had no defensive injuries.
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Joshua emerged from the kitchen nine minutes after he had entered and "appeared to have blood on his legs and head".
Police found bloody clothes in the bathroom, a bloodied white towel, two blood-stained knives in the basement and another in the kitchen bin.
A further knife was found in the annex, but Joshua had already left the property.
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