NO GOD WILL FORGIVE YOU
Mother’s agony over au pair starved and waterboarded by social-climbing couple who then burned body in garden
THE mother of a French nanny whose beaten body was found burning in a garden told her killers ‘no god will ever forgive you’ as they were convicted of murder yesterday.
Sophie Lionnet, 21, died last September after being starved and waterboarded by her boss, mother-of-two Sabrina Kouider, 35, assisted by her ‘lapdog’ boyfriend Ouissem Medouni, 40. They then tried to burn the body in the garden at their flat in Southfields, south-west London.
Kouider and Medouni, a former banker, were both convicted of murder by an Old Bailey jury. They were remanded in custody and will be sentenced on June 26.
In a victim impact statement, the au pair’s mother Catherine Devallonne, 48, said: ‘Those monsters repeatedly beat Sophie, starved, tortured and broke her.’ She told the killers: ‘No one, no god, will ever forgive you both for what you have done to our daughter…’
FROM the outside, Sabrina Kouider seemed to have it all. Attractive, vivacious and with a job in the fashion industry, the 35year-old mother-of-two appeared a perfect fit for the affluent corner of southwest London where she had chosen to make her home.
Indeed, the setting could hardly have been more appealing – well-heeled neighbours in multi-million-pound terraced houses and an ‘outstanding’ primary school for her children. There was even a Marks & Spencer Foodhall at the end of her road.
And it was against the backdrop of this wealthy middle-class suburban enclave, that the life of a young, innocent French woman would end in circumstances that are almost too appalling to comprehend.
What makes the death of Sophie Lionnet all the more shocking is that it was not the result of a single moment of madness.
Her abuse unfolded and intensified over the course of months. And while no one knew the full extent of what was going on behind the doors of Kouider’s rented £550,000 ground-floor flat, there were plenty who had their concerns.
A naturally thin girl, over time the young nanny became positively emaciated and unkempt – her hair lank and greasy, a vacant, sad look on her face. A local restaurateur noticed how hungry she was – wolfing down chips that he gave her whenever she called in.
Others who saw her interact with Kouider were shocked by the way she treated her – shouting at her, calling her names, striking her. Even the police were involved at one point, as were Sophie’s parents.
But despite these warning signs, no-one, not least Sophie herself, did anything about it. Why that is, will no doubt haunt those involved for years to come.
And yet the reality is that the circumstances were unique – so bizarre they were almost impossible to believe.
In Sophie, by chance, the outwardly respectable Kouider had found the perfect person on whom to vent her paranoid delusions.
Naive, innocent and a long way from her home, the 21-year-old’s kind heart and love for the children she was looking after was abused and exploited.
While deep down Sophie knew she needed to get out, to go back to her mother, whenever she threatened to leave, Kouider would persuade her to stay, promising things would change.
Later on, as Kouider became increasing irrational and obsessive, the violence began. By the end, Sophie was totally broken – tortured, imprisoned and brutal- ised to such an extent she was incapable of rational thought.
‘How can someone work for no money? How can someone be treated in such an appalling manner and not leave?’ the jury was asked by the prosecution at the start of the trial. ‘Your reaction will be based on the fact that it is likely that never before will you have encountered a combination of individuals such as these two: Sabrina Kouider and Sophie Lionnet. The one being vindictive, overbearing and controlling – the other being timid, uncomplaining and especially vulnerable to manipulation and threats.’ Sophie’s killer, who was named Nafissa by her parents, was born in northern Algeria, one of four siblings. Not long after her birth her parents and sister left for Paris because of the conflict in the region. She was cared for by her grandmother, joining her family in France when she was eight. Raised in Vitry, a southern suburb of Paris full of industry and housing estates, she found settling in to her new life ‘difficult’. Hers was a gritty rather than glamorous beginning. At the age of 18 Kouider left school. Three years later she met Ouissem Medouni at a funfair. Bowled over by her