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Accused blame each other for murder of French students
Paul Cheston14 May 2009
The two men accused of butchering two French students today blamed each other for the murders.
On his third day in the witness box at the Old Bailey Nigel Farmer accused his co-defendant's barrister of telling “a load of lies”.
Farmer, 34, claims he was asleep in bed in Deptford when the students were stripped, bound, tortured and stabbed more than 200 times in their flat in New Cross.
He said Dano Sonnex, 23, came home covered in blood and later admitted he had been involved in a stabbing and then made Farmer set fire to the flat to destroy evidence.
But today Sonnex's counsel Philip Misner said Farmer had carried out the murders and his client had only been the lookout outside the flat.
Mr Misner told the jury Sonnex had entered the flat later to find the bodies on the floor. He had tried to undo their ties and asked: “Are you OK?” and “are you awake?” while Farmer stood there claiming they had been like that when he entered the premises, the court heard. But Farmer snapped back: “That is crazy. Nothing like that happened at all.”
Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23 and students at Imperial College, were murdered after disturbing burglars in June last year, the court has heard.
Cross examining Farmer, Mr Misner told the defendant he had taken a large amount of alcohol and drugs before the murders and had been angry that he had been robbed that night. He said: “The pair of you went to Sterling Gardens (where the students lived). You went in and he waited outside as a lookout. You were in five or 10 minutes then passed him a credit card and a piece of paper with a number on it.” Farmer said: “I was at home. I wasn't with him.”
Mr Misner suggested Farmer had made Sonnex make two trips to a cash machine to try to withdraw money from the students' accounts.
Sonnex has pleaded guilty to burglary and not guilty to two counts of murder, false imprisonment and arson. Farmer has denied all the charges. The trial continues.
