Couple jailed for life over nanny murder
A COUPLE who tortured and murdered their nanny were yesterday jailed for a minimum of 30 years each.
Sabrina Kouider, 35, and Ouissem Medouni, 40, held 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet prisoner in their home where she was starved, beaten and interrogated.
The French couple eventually drowned her in a bath and tried to burn her body in the garden of their flat in Wimbledon, southwest London. The twisted killers may have planned to blackmail music producer Mark Walton with false confessions they extracted from their tragic victim, a court heard. Hours before she died, the broken young Frenchwoman was filmed admitting to bizarre criminal acts involving the Boyzone founder who her killers believed was abusing people in their home.
Kouider and Mr Walton had once had a turbulent two-year relationship, jurors were told.
Fashion designer Kouider and unemployed banker Medouni blamed each other for Sophie’s death last September. But an Old Bailey jury found them guilty murder last month.
In a letter to her victim read out during sentencing, Kouider apologised but failed to take responsibility for the murder.
“I am shocked and sad that you are not part of this world any more,” the killer wrote.
Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard, QC, jailed Kouider and Medouni for life and ordered each to serve at least 30 years before they can be freed. of