Nanny Sophie’s ordeal of ‘torture in the bath’

THE alleged killers of French nanny Sophie Lionnet repeatedly plunged her head under bath water to force her to confess to fictitious crimes, a court was told yesterday.

The simulated drowning was part of a brutal and relentless interrogation, the jury heard.

A witness overheard Sophie’s screams and “lots of splashing of water” as Sabrina Kouider and Sam Medouni attacked the 21-year-old in the bathroom of their home, said Richard Horwell, QC, prosecuting.

Debris

“The witness said he kept on hearing Sophie go under the water and that Kouider and Medouni would then say, ‘Breathe’.”

The witness described Sophie “being subjected to violence, perhaps more appropriately described as torture”, Mr Horwell said.

The water torture allegedly took place the day before Kouider, 34, and Medouni, 40, extracted a video confession to a crime which never took place, the Old Bailey heard.

The fictitious incident involved Kouider’s ex-lover Mark Walton, founder of boy band Boyzone, and another man, sneaking into the couple’s home in Wimbledon, southwest London, then drugging and assaulting them.

The court was told there was no suggestion any such incident took place and music mogul Mr Walton had never met Sophie. But Kouider and Nanny Sophie Lionnet, left, was forced to confess to a fictitious crime by alleged killers, right, Medouni, and Kouider, the Old Bailey trial heard Medouni wore Sophie down during an inquisition lasting eight-and-a-half hours and spread over several days.

Before Sophie’s video “confession” was played, Mr Horwell warned jurors it was “truly harrowing” and “you must brace yourselves”.

Sophie’s mother, Catherine Devallone, left the court in tears, but later returned and watched her daughter’s final “confession” video.

Kouider and Medouni killed Sophie shortly after it was made last September, Mr Horwell told the court. They then stuffed her body into a suitcase before burning it in the back garden.

The blaze went on so long, a neighbour dialled 999 and firefighters found Sophie’s remains in the debris, jurors heard.

Kouider and Medouni deny murder but admit perverting the course of justice by burning her body.

The trial continues.