Nanny 'murdered and thrown on fire after months of torture' at Wimbledon home, courts hears

Nanny Sophie Lionnet was killed and thrown on a fire, a murder trial at the Old Bailey has heard
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The "wicked" former partner of a Boyzone singer murdered her French au pair after subjecting her to months of torment and abuse while she was held prisoner at her Wimbledon home, the Old Bailey heard.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, is accused with her boyfriend, Ouissem Medouni, 40, of killing 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet before burning her body on a bonfire in the back garden.

It is said the couple "hardly paid" Ms Lionnet for her work, subjected her to verbal and physical abuse, and starved her to the point of emaciation.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said Ms Lionnet's murder, in September last year, had its root in Kouider's "obsession" with her ex-partner, Boyzone singer Mark Walton.

Kouider made wild accusations about Mr Walton, now an LA music producer, being a paedophile and claimed he had been controlling her with "black magic", he said.

Accused: Sabrina Kouider
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Mr Horwell said Kouider, with the help of Medouni, began to believe Ms Lionnet was "in league" with Mr Walton, and grilled her for hours on end in a bid to extract a confession.

"These inventions or beliefs, whatever they may have been, concerning Mark Walton, formed a central part of the reason why the defendants murdered Sophie", said the prosecutor.

He said key evidence was eight and a half hours of "harrowing" tapes of Ms Lionnet being "interrogated" by the defendants, recorded over the space of six weeks.

"Sometimes calmly but more often than not aggressively, they threatened her with prison, rape and violence if she did not cooperate", he said.

Of the final video tapes, Mr Horwell said: "They are harrowing, they depict a young, emaciation, frightened, and helpless woman anxious to say and do whatever her two tormentors wanted her to say and do, but her exhausted and terrified state was such that it is obvious that she was not always certain what it is they wanted of her."

The court heard Kouider and Mr Walton had been in a short-lived relationship which ended in 2013, but Kouider remained "obsessed" with the singer.

Mr Horwell said Ms Lionnet moved to the UK in January 2016 to work as Kouider's nanny, but became trapped in the "horrendous household" where she was not allowed holiday to return to France.

She was accused of stealing a diamond pendant from Kouider, the court heard, but told her mother that she was too poor to leave her job.

"Sophie was not only young, but also, we suggest, naïve and particularly vulnerable and this made her an easy target for abuse and exploitation", said Mr Horwell.

"The defendants mistreated and intimidated Sophie in a manner that is way beyond anything that could be considered normal or rational – their actions, at times, difficult to comprehend.

"Sophie had a great desire to please, even in adversity, and if she did not have the strength to walk out of this horrendous household, as she plainly did not, she must have found this unnatural and increasingly toxic situation wholly outside her experience and ability to manage.

"The defendants not only hold her prisoner in their home, but occasionally had succeeded in removing her will to fight the allegations made against her."

Mr Horwell said Medouni did not live at the home all the time, but was "beguiled" by Kouider and joined her in the torment of Ms Lionnet.

"The last days and hours of Sophie’s life must have been truly wretched", said the prosecutor.

"She was subjected, at times, to a brutal and oppressive inquisition and to significant violence."

He told the jurors they will hear evidence of Kouider "screaming" at Ms Lionnet in front of shocked eyewitnesses, and accounts of the young nanny appearing hungry and losing weight dramatically while living at the Wimbledon home.

Letters from Ms Lionnet to her mother in France, when she complained of abuse, will also be shown to the jury.

Mr Horwell said neither defendant will say how Ms Lionnet died, having hoped to burn her body and then pretend she had simply returned to France and gone missing.

The court heard the young woman's remains were discovered in the ashes of a bonfire at the back garden of the Wimbledon, after a 999 call from a concerned neighbour.

"Their wicked plan was frustrated by the combination of a neighbour and inquisitive fire fighters", said the prosecutor.

"Without such vigilance the two defendants might well have got away with murder - which was, of course, their aim."

Medouni and Kouider, both from Southfields, deny murder. The trial continues.

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