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Students' killers face longer sentences
Peter Dominiczak12.06.09
The killers of two London-based French students could get longer jail terms after the Attorney General called in the case.
Dano Sonnex, 23, from Peckham, and Nigel Farmer, 34, of no fixed address, murdered Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo, both 23, in New Cross in a "frenzied" attack in June last year.
Baroness Scotland will consider whether to refer Sonnex and Farmer's life sentences to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that they were "unduly lenient".
Last week a judge said Sonnex would be eligible for parole after 40 years and Farmer after 35, but the families of the two young biochemists said they should die in prison.
Jailing Sonnex and Farmer, Mr Justice Saunders said the killers gained a sick pleasure from Mr Ferez and Mr Bonomo's deaths.
He said the way the murders were carried out was so appalling they could justify a full life term.
However, he ruled that the men should one day be eligible for release because they were too young to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Mr Bonomo's father Guy, 45, urged the judge to impose a whole life tariff on men he described as "animals".
Sonnex and Farmer tied up their semi-naked victims in Mr Bonomo's flat after climbing in through a window.
They stole bank cards and mobile phones and launched an "inhuman" attack on the pair, stabbing them 244 times and setting their bodies alight.
After the trial it became clear that failures by probation workers, police and prison staff led to Sonnex being released on bail before the murders.
Reader views (4)
"Whole life tariffs" come along once in a blue moon in England, hardly ever passed down. I suspect that the only reason these men receieved these (unusually lengthy)prison sentences is because the victims were French nationals, and the judge felt pressure to impose them. Just a thought.
- M. John Namrah, San Diego, USA
If there current sentences are too lenient, what about those given to other killers, like those who murdered Ben Kinsella?
- C.Nichol, London
The use of the word "Animal" to describe these mindless thugs is an affront to the Animal Kingdom. How many other animals kill for pleasure?
- Albert Swift, Aberdeen, Scotland
".. the families of the two young biochemists said they should die in prison."
It is not just these poor families, but British families and right minded people calling for Life sentences to mean LIFE.
Not in a Labour society, criminals first victims can go hang.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
