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‘Student murders suspect smirked during quizzing’
Paul Cheston12 May 2009
A woman spoke of her shock today as one of the men accused of murdering two French students confessed to her but claimed the police refused to arrest him.
The Old Bailey heard that the man, said to be Nigel Farmer, confessed to Lucy Downer as they sat side by side in a south London police station.
She was frightened by the man's red raw face and blistered and burned hands, the court heard.
Nigel Farmer and Dano Sonnex have both denied murdering the students who were stabbed 244 times and their bodies burned in a fire at their flat in New Cross.
The jury has heard Imperial College university students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, had brilliant futures ahead of them.
But they were stripped, tied up and tortured before being murdered in a scene of "unimaginable horror."
Miss Downer said she had gone to Lewisham police station to pay a fine for her boyfriend a week after the fire.
As she sat in the reception area with her cousin waiting to see a police officer, the man entered, spoke to the receptionist and then sat by her.
"I noticed his hands were bright red and his face was flasky and peeling," she said in a statement read to the court because of illness by Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting.
"He held out his hands, they were raised, he was intimidating me. He was waving his hands up and out to express his frustration.
"He said: 'I have just killed two people and the police don't f****** want to know.'
"He then went back to the reception booth and said: 'I have just killed two people in New Cross.' He also said: 'I've got third degree burns.'"
Ms Downer said she made a "please help me" gesture to an officer who came over to take him aside.
She said the man's pupils looked "wired" as if he was on drugs. he took out a tub of cream and smeared a huge handful of it onto his damaged hands. He also stared at her younger cousin which she considered to be "intimidating."
The court has heard that the two victims had been subjected to an attack of "brutal and sustained ferocity."
One was stabbed 194 times and the other 50 times in their bedsit after being disturbed by burglars who allegedly took Mr Ferez's bank card but were unable to get any money out of a cash dispenser.
Said Mr Aylett: "So to take revenge for the fact that they were unable to steal money from Mr Ferez, both men were murdered in a way that can only be described as inhuman."
The flat was set alight later that night and the arsonist, who had been burned as a ball of flame erupted when he ignited the petrol, was seen running from the scene.
Sonnex, 23 of Deptford, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and further charges of false imprisonment and arson.
He has pleaded guilty to burglary of a bank card, credit card, two Sony PSP consoles and two mobile phones.
Farmer, 34 of no fixed address, has denied all the charges.
The case continues.
