‘NANNY KILLERS’
Couple beat ‘vulnerable’ woman to death and burned body, trial told
A COUPLE tortured their “vulnerable” nanny and kept her “prisoner” before beating her to death and burning the body, a court has heard.
Sabrina Kouider and her partner Ouissem Medouni alledgedly threatened French au pair Sophie Lionnet, 21, with rape and violence after falsely accusing her of stealing a diamond pendant and plotting against them.
Fashion designer Kouider, 35 – the ex-girlfriend of Boyzone founder Mark Walton – is accused of killing “naive” Sophie after a “brutal inquisition”, some of which Kouider filmed.
Medouni, 40, and 35-year-old Kouider are said to have held Sophie captive at their £900,000 home in Wimbledon, South West London, before her death.
Kouider accused Sophie of being “in league” with former boyband star Mr Walton, who Kouider was “obsessed” with since their split five years ago.
Sophie’s charred remains were found in the couple’s garden on September 20 last year. She had fractures to her breastbone, ribs and jaw. Their plan was to dispose of Sophie’s body and say she had returned to France, but a neighbour saw the fire and dialled 999. Sophie, from Troyes, North East France, moved to England to work for Kouider in 2016. Kouider was “vindictive, overbearing and controlling”, while Sophie was “timid and especially vulnerable to manipulation and threats”, jurors heard. Police found notes written by Sophie saying she had been called a “whore”, “bitch” and “slut”, and that she desperately missed her family. In November 2016, Sophie asked her mum Catherine Devallonne to buy her a ticket home, but she could not afford it. She wrote to her dad Patrick Lionnet in June last year, saying she no longer had internet access or enough credit to call. Sophie wrote: “I’m being accused of things I would never do. I feel worried.” Prosecutor Richard Horwell QC told the Old Bailey: “She was subjected to a brutal inquisition and to significant violence.” The couple made three recordings of Sophie days before her death. Mr Horwell said: “They depict [an] emaciated, frightened, helpless woman.” The pair, of Southfields, South West London, deny murder. The trial goes on.