 Using Iraqi passports , Oan and three other members of the DRFLA arrived in London on 31 March 1980 and rented a flat in Earls Court . They claimed they had met by chance on the flight . The men typically returned to the flat drunk , late at night , and sometimes accompanied by prostitutes . Within a week , the housekeeper asked them to leave . They soon found another flat , where they told their new landlord they were moving because they had been joined by other men and required larger accommodation . Over the following days , the group swelled , with up to a dozen men in the flat on one occasion . 
