Afternoon:
9°c
Man accused of student murder ‘planned to burgle actress’
Paul Cheston13 May 2009
One of the men accused of butchering two French students set out that night to burgle the home of an EastEnders actress, the Old Bailey heard today.
Nigel Farmer claimed he had been asleep on his bed when students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez were tortured and stabbed more than 200 times in their own home.
But Farmer told the jury his co defendant Dano Sonnex had talked of going to burgle the nearby home of the actress who plays Mo Slater - better known as Big Mo.
The next morning Sonnex arrived home "looking a bit crazy" and with blood on his trousers and jacket, the court heard.
Earlier the court heard a friend of the EastEnders actress describe how she had confronted a man at an upstairs window in the middle of the night asking: "Is this Mo's house? I want her signature."
Farmer and Sonnex have denied murdering the two bright and ambitious 23-year-old French students at a bedsit in New Cross last June.
The victims were stripped, tied up and stabbed before the flat was set alight leaving "a scene of almost unimaginable horror."
Giving evidence for a second day Farmer said he had been staying at the Sonnex family home in Deptford after his partner and thrown him out of the house.
On the night of the murders he had been out drinking with Sonnex and ended up with him at a friend's house in New Cross in the early hours.
"Dano was in the kitchen. He had a knife. It had a brownish handle with a sheaf with a button," he told the jury.
"Dano was talking about committing a burglary on Mo Slater of EastEnders home."
Farmer said he saw Sonnex and the friend head off and saw him at a house standing "on some sort of structure near a window - he looked as if he had a knife between his teeth and was attempting to climb down."
Farmer said he went off to buy cigarettes because he did not want to get involved but noticed Sonnex was following him.
He spent the rest of the night at the family home dozing before Sonnex came in at around 8.30am, he said.
"He was standing in the hallway. He looked a bit crazy. He had red stains on his trousers and jacket sleeve. He was wide-eyed and sweaty," he said.
It was not until the much later in the day that Sonnex told him there had been a stabbing and asked him to burn the premises down "as a favour."
Earlier the court heard a statement by Sue Blomfield who was staying in the house of EastEnders actress Laila Morse who was referred to in court by her real name of Maureen Bass.
Ms Blomfield said she heard a noise in the night and, almost totally naked, went to investigate at the window.
"I saw a man just about to climb through the open window," she said in the statement read by Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting.
"I said: 'What the f*** are you doing?' He was standing on the conservatory.
"He said: 'Is this Mo's house?' I said: 'No, it's my house.' I was alarmed. I was expecting a cat and I was confronted by a man.
"He said: 'I want her signature.' I told him to f*** off and told him the police were coming. He said: 'You've done my ankle. I'm coming back.'
I told Maureen what happened and she called the police."
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.
