A long-serving housekeeper has been found not guilty of stealing expensive jewellery from her employer, a Jordanian princess.
A jury in London took less than two hours to clear Maria Virgelina Taborda Henao, 71, of theft.
She had been accused of stealing several items from the home in Belgravia when Princess Firyal, 81, flew to Jordan at the outbreak of Covid in 2020.
Princess Firyal was married to Prince Muhammad bin Talal, the younger brother of King Hussein of Jordan, from 1964 to 1978.
She had told Southwark Crown Court that she had been alerted that items from her jewellery collection were missing when a jeweller friend called to tell her they had appeared for auction in Canterbury. The items included a custom-made sapphire and diamond ring.
The court heard police found Princess Firyal’s wedding ring, a pair of earrings and a necklace during a search of Ms Taborda Henao’s home in Fulham. The princess thought the wedding ring had been lost years earlier.
Ms Taborda Henao, who is from Colombia and had worked for Princess Firyal for 11 years, told the court, through a Spanish interpreter, that the princess had called her a thief and made similar accusations against other people.
Ms Taborda Henao’s nephew, Julian Ramirez, was said to have acted as a conduit for the sale of the items. He was also arrested but fled to Colombia in October 2023 while on police bail.