Fashion designer accused of murder admits being violent towards nanny

A fashion designer accused of killing her French nanny and throwing the body on a bonfire has admitted being violent towards her three times.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, and her partnerouissemmedouni,40, are charged with murdering 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet at the family home in Wimbledon, south-west London.

The Old Bailey trial has heard they have blamed each other over the death in September last year but admit disposing of the body in the back garden.

Earlier the same month, Kouider said she had hit Miss Lionnet with an electrical cable after becoming upset about her supposed associ- 0 Sophie Lionnet died in September last year ation with her ex-boyfriend Mark Walton, formerly of Boyzone.

In early August last year, she told jurors she had pushed the au pair when she found her looking at papers in the house.

Meanwhile, on 12 July, Kouider confronted Miss Lionnet in the kitchen for not organising the family breakfast.

She said: “I believe as soon as I pushed her she fell around a bin but it did not make any effect on her. She was fine.”

Kouider denied making to kick Miss Lionnet or picking up a chair, as her former friend Nicole Vatonavimlakul had claimed in her evidence.

The defendant was asked about CCTV footage she sent to Ms Vatonavimlakul showing Sophia walking around her home.

Icah Peart QC, defending, asked: “Were you deliberately spying on Sophie?” She replied: “Not at all. It was for safety.”kouider and Medouni have denied murder but admitted perverting the course of justice.