Two charged with murder of French nanny whose badly burnt body was found in garden at house in south London

The victim has been named locally as Sophie Lionnet
Facebook
Fiona Simpson22 September 2017
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A man and woman have been charged with the murder of a French au pair whose burnt body was found in the garden of a house in south London.

Police raced to the Edwardian end-of-terrace home in Wandsworth after parents walking their children home from school reported a large blaze and “weird-smelling” smoke coming from the home in south London on Wednesday evening.

A neighbour’s child scaled the back garden gate and saw a bonfire with a man throwing sticks on the flames.

When firefighters arrived at 6.30pm at the property in Wimbledon Park Road, the body was so badly burned they could not establish the age or gender.

Sabrina Kouider, 34, has been charged with murder

The victim has been named locally as Sophie Lionnet, 21, a nanny from Troyes, in north-eastern France.

Police today charged Ouissem Medouni, 40, and Sabrina Kouider, 34, of Pulborough Road, SW18 with her murder.

Ms Lionnet looked after Ms Quider's three-year-old daughter and son aged six at the flat.

Grisly find: police at the scene of the murder in Wandsworth

Neighbours said Ms Lionnet had been living in London for 14 months in order to learn English.

A shocked neighbour who lived upstairs told the Standard: “We complained to our landlord the day before about a bad smell. It was like a gas leak. He came in and had a look around but didn’t see anything.

The victim's body was found in the garden of a house in Wandsworth

“That family kept to themselves mostly, I remember once they came in complaining about our washing machine leaking into their flat.

“They seemed quite normal but they always do. We would hear them having really loud arguments below there would be a woman’s screams.”

A mother-of-two, 51, whose home backs on to the garden where the charred remains were found said her children saw a man poking what they thought were “sticks” on to a fire.

She told the Standard: “We saw the bonfire smoking up.

“My little boys looked over and saw this man sweeping some wood into the burning stuff. He told me it was just a ‘big pile of black’.

“I didn’t think much of it they did odd things at odd times anyway. I only ever really saw the French nanny and the kids.”

A friend told the Daily Mail: “She came here to learn English, but found it very difficult here.

“Sophie had been unhappy for a long time – so unhappy she left to stay with one of her few friends for two nights last month.

“She had finally decided to go home though, and had just asked her mum to send her £40 so she could afford the fare.

“She was supposed to have gone back on Monday. She never arrived."

Ouissem Medouni and Sabrina Kouider will appear at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court today.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0208 721 4843, via Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or on Twitter via @MetCC.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in