Sophie Lionnet murder: Sabrina Kouider and Ouissem Medouni found guilty of killing their French nanny

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A couple were found guilty today of murdering their French nanny after they were discovered burning her body on a bonfire at their Southfields home.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, and her partner, Ouissem Medouni, 40, killed 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet after keeping her effectively imprisoned for weeks and subjecting her to torture.

The Old Bailey was told that Kouider had developed a bizarre obsession with ex-Boyzone band member Mark Walton and had accused Miss Lionnet of being in league with him.

The couple attempted to cover up the murder by burning Miss Lionnet’s body in the back garden but concerned neighbours reported that the bonfire was out of control.

Sophie Lionnet, who was tortured by her employers, two days before her death
PA

Medouni told firefighters he was barbecuing a sheep he had bought from Wimbledon market but they became suspicious and discovered Miss Lionnet’s charred remains.

A court has heard that Sophie Lionnet was beaten to death before being thrown on a bonfire
Metropolitan Police

Kouider and Medouni, her on-off lover, blamed each other for Miss Lionnet’s death last September.

But a jury today found both of them guilty of murder and they face a sentence of life in jail.

Kouider collapsed in tears as the jury foreman returned the verdicts, while Medouni hung his head.

A barbecue on which Medouni claimed to be cooking a sheep

Following a two-month trial that was described as “stranger than fiction,” the jury deliberated for more than 29 hours before reaching verdicts.

Kouider, who had once dated Boyzone founder Mr Walton and claimed to have partied with US president Donald Trump, was dubbed “wicked” during the trial.

She reported Mr Walton to police more than 30 times and insisted that he had used black magic against Miss Lionnet and falsely accused him of domestic abuse and of being a paedophile.

Sabrina Kouider, 34, has been charged with the murder of nanny Sophie Lionnet
Facebook

However, Mr Walton, now a millionaire LA music producer, came to court to deny all the claims, explaining that he had not even been in the UK on days when Kouider accused him of carrying out the abuse.

In the weeks leading up to Miss Lionnet’s death, the couple beat, starved and tortured her by dunking her head into water until she “confessed”.

Today police released a chilling image showing gaunt-looking Sophie two days before she was murdered.

The back garden where Sophie Lionnet's body was found

Medouni, a banker, became an ardent believer in Kouider’s twisted reality and they interrogated Miss Lionnet for hours to get to “the truth”.

Jurors were told about more than eight hours of “interrogation” sessions in which Miss Lionnet was slapped, likened to a Nazi collaborator and called “worse than a murderer” by her tormentors.

Sabrina Kouider after being taken into police custody

The victim’s distraught mother Catherine Devallonne had begged Kouider to send her daughter home but she refused.

In her final days, Miss Lionnet was hit with an electrical cable and beaten so badly she had five broken ribs and a cracked breast bone. In a filmed “confession”, the young woman said she had drugged Medouni so Mr Walton could sexually assault him. Within hours, she was dead.

Sophie Lionnet's mother Catherine Devallone cried outside the Old Bailey after her daughter's killers are convicted
AFP/Getty Images

In the months before her murder other nannies in the area said Miss Lionnet seemed to think it was normal that she was barely paid but she dropped hints over time that she was scared and hungry. A fish and chip shop owner told how she grabbed food as if starving and revealed she had been beaten.

Having killed her in the bath, the pair threw her on a bonfire in the garden of their home in Southfields as they barbecued chicken nearby.

Convicted: Ouissem Medouni

A pathologist found Miss Lionnet had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, neck and chest but the cause of death was unclear due to the burning of her body.

Aisling Hosein from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Only Kouider and Medouni know exactly how they killed Sophie but the prosecution was able to prove that she died as a result of purposeful and sustained violence, and not by accident.”

Miss Lionnet’s mother and father sat through the trial and heard harrowing details of their daughter’s final weeks.

A court sketch shows Ouissem Medouni, 40, and his partner Sabrina Kouider, 34, in court
PA

After the verdict Ms Devallonne described her daughter’s killers as “monsters”. She said: “These self-obsessed individuals who murdered Sophie did not believe Sophie had a value. These monsters repeatedly beat Sophie. They starved, tortured and broke her. They took away her dignity and finally her life. Our Sophie will soon be laid to rest. No God will ever forgive you both for what you have done to our daughter.” Kouider and Medouni had pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by burning the body but had denied murder.

Detective Inspector Domenica Catino, who investigated the case, described Kouider and Medouni as “cruel and evil” saying “there were no boundaries for these two; no humanity, no compassion.” She added: “I am satisfied that the verdict has bought some justice for Sophie but of course it will never bring her back.

Catherine Devallonne and her husband Stephane Devallonne arrive at the Old Bailey
AFP/Getty Images

“I cannot imagine what thoughts were going through Sophie’s mind whilst being held a prisoner.”

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