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Two men on trial for murdering, torturing and torching a pair of French students have been found guilty at the Old Bailey. Nigel Edwards Farmer, 34, of no fixed address, and Danno Sonnex, 23, from Peckham, south London, denied murder, arson, and false imprisonment. Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo were riddled with stab wounds and showed of torture. Mr Bonomo was stabbed almost 200 times and Mr Ferez was wounded 50 times. They were found bound and gagged and mutilated in a New Cross bedsit on 29 June last year. Justice Secretary sorry over 'free to kill' Justice Secretary Jack Straw has also apologised to the families over blunders which left one of guilty men 'free to kill'. Sonnex should have been in prison at the time of the killings, but was freed following an administrative error. A senior probation officer in London has also resigned as a result of the mistakes. Lydie Bonomo said her son Laurent would still be alive today if the mistakes had not been made. Neighbour spotted accused - 'Pressurized' into arson - admitted burglary Earlier in the trial a neighbour of the victims told the court he spotted one of the accused fleeing the burning apartment block ans one of the men admitted setting the murder scene alight. Farmer admits starting the fire but said he was forced to do so by Mr Sonnex who said he would harm his children. He claimed the brother of co-defendant Sonnex - the 34-year-old father of two told jurors that Bernie Sonnex had in the past admitted killing three other people and getting away with it. He said: "He said to me, 'Have you seen how much blood Dano had on him this morning?' He said, 'If you don't do what you're f**king told, tomorrow morning that could be your kids' blood all over him. He was obviously scaring me quite a lot. Dano came in and he said he could cut my kids' legs off below the knees." The conversation was alleged to have taken place in the hours following the murders.
"Dumped knife in the Thames" - "did not see the bodies"
Farmer told the jury how he doused the flat with petrol and put a match to it - he claims he did not see the bodies as the lights were off. Farmer said he was out with Sonnex in the hours before the murders, but went back to the Sonnex family home, where he had been staying on his own, and dozed off. He said later came in with blood on his clothes and looking "a bit crazy" before having a bath and cleaning up with bleach. Farmer says was forced to help dump a knife in the Thames before being taken to a petrol station to fill two cans up with petrol.
Accused attempted suicide - tried to surrender
The jury heard Farmer tried to surrender to police over a week later, but was told to wait. He allegedly told a woman waiting to be seen: "I have just killed two people and the police don’t f***ing want to do anything about it...I’ve just killed two f***ing people in New Cross." Three days later cops found Sonnex cowering in his grandparents’ loft. Sonnex would have wanted "a piece of the action" and would not have stood by as £100-a-day drug addict Farmer engaged in an "orgy of blood-letting," the jury was told. Prosecutor Crispin Aylett said Sonnex had convictions for stabbing a teenager in the back and chest, robbing four youths at gunpoint and attempting to hold up a takeaway. Months before the murders he had allegedly tied up his pregnant foster-sister and her boyfriend to extract money from them. Farmer had been convicted of a knifepoint robbery and had twice tried to kill himself in the months before the murders.
Bank card "sealed fate'
Mr Ferez’s fate was sealed when his card was swallowed by an ATM machine - the crown saying Sonnex was captured on CCTV at both cashpoints. Aylett QC said: "Farmer and Sonnex must have decided that the men would have to die. So to take revenge for the fact that they had been unable to steal money from Mr Ferez, both men were murdered in a way that one can describe only as inhuman." Sonnex and Farmer had blamed each other, but Mr Aylett described the crime as a "joint enterprise of unmitigated evil".
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