Detectives are continuing to question a Saudi prince over his servant's murder as new details about their relationship become known.
Sources have compared it to a master and servant relationship and it has emerged that the aide may have slept on the floor at the foot of his master's bed.
The prince has been held on suspicion of killing the man at the Landmark Hotel in Central London.
Scotland Yard detectives have also seized CCTV footage of an alleged assault by the 33-year-old multi-millionaire on his aide in a hotel lift last month.
Officers are examining the possibility that the servant was the subject of regular abuse from his master.
The episode is believed to have happened about three weeks ago, soon after the Saudi prince - son of a nephew of King Abdullah - and his entourage checked into the hotel.
Police believe the murder happened during a row at the hotel, but they have found no obvious motive. This prompted speculation last night that the servant was subjected to gratuitous violence.
Police are expected to examine whether the aide suffered regular domestic abuse at the hands of his employer.
Scotland Yard refused to comment yesterday about the previous alleged attack. But a hotel source said: 'Police are looking at CCTV from a previous incident in January.'
The suspect, an international playboy, has been staying at the Landmark for three weeks, spending up to £100,000 on five rooms including a £1,000-a-night suite.
It is not the first time that Saudi royals have been accused of mistreating their servants.
Princess Hind al-Fassi and her husband, Turki ibn Abdel Aziz, brother to Saudi Arabia's late ruler, King Fahd, were accused by Egyptian and Filipino employees of mistreatment in 1998.
Several of their servants tried to escape a hotel, saying they had been treated as virtual prisoners. One broke his back when he fell from a rope made of knotted sheets.
The murder inquiry began after post-mortem results showed the 32-year-old victim died of neck and head injuries.
This contradicted claims by Saudi security sources stating the servant's death was caused by an ear injury sustained during a mugging.
But Saudi Arabian government sources last night insisted the prince had no involvement with the man's death. They claimed the servant died after an ear injury, despite post-mortem results revealing the victim was strangled.
'This young prince has nothing to do with the issue,' a security source said.
'Unfortunately, one of his private entourage was mugged in the street. He was cut on his ear, but doctors discharged him from hospital because they thought it was a superficial head wound.
'In fact the injury was very serious and he died later of an internal head injury.'
They were unable to explain how he also came to have been strangled.
Detectives were called to the eight-storey hotel after his body was found by a maid at 4.45pm on Monday.
The prince was arrested five hours later after questions were raised about his account of the incident, which was not witnessed by anyone.
Detectives have been granted more time to question the suspect. As a minor royal he does not qualify for diplomatic immunity.
The Saudi embassy refused to comment yesterday but a senior diplomat is believed to have visited the arrested man in his cell.
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