GUILTY Uk - Sophie Lionnet, 21, Body Found Burned, Wandsworth, London, 20 Sep 2017 *arrests*

[Elainera]

Prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said a witness, who cannot be identified, had described how she was tortured in the bath at the couple's home.

Miss Lionnet was heard to scream and splash in the bathroom as the defendants told her to "breathe", he said.

Jurors were shown harrowing video footage of an emaciated and gaunt looking Miss Lionnet making a so-called confession hours before she died.

The court heard Medouni had claimed Miss Lionnet died by accident in the bath while he interrogated her.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/la...t-murder-french-nanny-boyzone-sabrina-kouider

Why was he in the bathroom with her to begin with?

 

[Elainera]

Sophie Lionnet death: Nanny 'pushed to confirm Boyzone claims'

A couple accused of killing a French nanny put her under "relentless" pressure to admit claims that a former Boyzone member had drugged and sexually abused occupants of their home.

They accused Ms Lionnet of being "in league" with Ms Kouider's ex and founding Boyzone member Mark Walton.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell QC told the Old Bailey the couple applied "pressure and relentless intimidation" to get her to admit Mr Walton had come to the house, and drugged and sexually abused the occupants with the help of an accomplice.

Mr Horwell told the court the defendants interrogated Miss Lionnet for hours about their "perverted suspicions" involving Ms Kouider's ex-partner.

He suggested one motive for killing her was "punishment and revenge".

In a recording on 11 September, Ms Kouider screamed: "You destroy everything. I was trying to find myself again.

"I pray to god not to make me touch you. I don't want to make my hands dirty."

The following day, the defendants accused Miss Lionnet of helping a "devil".

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-43472740

 

[Tortoise]

Firefighter Thomas Hunt confronted Medouni after he found human fingers and a nose as he put out the fire, the Old Bailey heard.

Giving evidence, Mr Hunt said: "I thought it was a very strange place for a self-started bonfire because of the close proximity to the tenants' or owners' property.
"The pile of debris caused damage to the property.

....

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5865767/sophie-lionnet-death-fireman-confronted-couple/

 

[Legally Bland]

Thomas Hunt was in a crew called to reports of smoke and a "horrible" smell emanating from the garden of Sabrina Kouider and Ouissem Medouni's home.

He told the court he realised there was a body among the ashes when he saw "two blackened logs", clothes and jewellery.

[...]

Mr Hunt told the court he confronted Mr Medouni after noticing a "nose and fingers" in the remnants of the fire.

"When I recognised it was a body I was concerned for my crew's safety so held it to myself for what seemed like 20 seconds because I did not know if I challenged the occupant what might happen next", he said.

"I turned to the occupant and asked 'Why are you burning a body?"

"He said 'It's a sheep'."

[...]

In response, Mr Hunt said, he accused Mr Medouni of lying.

Asked how Mr Medouni seemed, he said: "Very calm. When I challenged him he shrugged off the accusation.

"When he sat down there was a look of resignation on him, like 'The game's up, I've been caught'."

Another fireman, Joseph Wood, said in a statement read to the court: "As soon as I saw the nose on the body, I called for police assistance as a body was being burned."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-43486377

 

[Tortoise]

He also noticed clothes and jewellery among the ashes, he said.

He said: “When I recognised it was a body I was concerned for my crew’s safety so held it to myself for what seemed like 20 seconds because I did not know if I challenged the occupant what might happen next.
“We were very close to leaving, our job was done. At that point I called to my colleague Jo ‘ That’s a body’.
“I turned to the occupant and asked ‘Why are you burning a body?”
“He said ‘It’s a sheep’.
Mr Hunt said “Bollocks” in reply.

more to read at link https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/...rench-nannys-remains-on-bonfire-36728719.html

 

[Legally Bland]

A mother claimed her nanny ran off after she threatened to report her to police for plotting with her former Boyzone pop star ex-boyfriend, a court heard.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, was not at home when firefighters found 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet's charred remains on a bonfire in her garden.

She was taken in by a neighbour who found her standing by a police cordon outside the Wimbledon flat on the evening of September 20 last year.

Neighbour Melanie Gamble told jurors she appeared "nervous" and asked to smoke, even though she had given up.

Pc Naomi Townsend said in a statement she was "very emotional and shocked" when she was arrested for murder.

Video footage from a body worn police camera was shown in court of Kouider's initial comments.

Asked what was going on at the house, she said her partner was "going to have a barbecue".

On who lived there, she said: "We had a nanny but she left two days ago.

"We woke up and she's not there.

"We are supposed to have reported it to the police.

"The problem: she told us something very big happened and had been in contact with my ex Mark Walton."

She claimed the former boy band member had paid Miss Lionnet more than £18,000.

Kouider, wearing black leggings and gold plimsolls, told police she worked in fashion from home and had paid her nanny £50 a week.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/l...g-plot-with-former-boyzone-member-833568.html

 

[Tortoise]

A witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, heard Ms Lionnet screaming from the bathroom with 'lots of splashing of water' and it seeping under the door.

A video of the last sighting of Ms Lionnet alive on Monday 18 September showing her sitting wet in front of a fireplace was played to jurors.

Jurors heard Medouni originally confessed to 'accidentally' killing the nanny but later changed his defence after Kouider pinned the blame on him.
Medouni said Ms Lionnet had died while he was interrogating her in the bathroom.
He said he had forced her head down and held it there on a number of occasions as he demanded information from her, adding that he had 'lost his temper and punched her in the face'.
Ms Lionnet's head flew back and hit the bathroom tiles and she slipped and lost consciousness, Medouni claimed.

His secondary claim was that he was guilty of manslaughter through loss of control.

But on January 4 this year Koudier submitted her defence statement which blamed Medouni for the whole thing, the court was told.

Mr Horwell summarised: 'She claimed that Medouni had become increasingly angry and violent to Sophie in an attempt to extract information from her.
'Kouider claimed that she then left the room, she does not say which room, and fell asleep.
'Whilst asleep, Sophie died and when Kouider awoke and discovered what had happened, Medouni told her that it had been an accident.'

The prosecutor said on 15 March, four days before the trial opened, Medouni served a second defence statement claiming he had previously lied to protect Kouider, and that it was he who had fallen asleep only to be awoken by Kouider and find Ms Lionnet lying in the bath.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...reamed-abuse-sobbing-nanny.html#ixzz5APscpWSM

 

[Elainera]

^^^
Someone said earlier, they're gonna blame it on each other. And so they are.

 

[Tortoise]

^^^
Someone said earlier, they're gonna blame it on each other. And so they are.

Yes, it makes me worried actually because I've seen other cases where there's not been a conviction when two halves of a couple blamed each other.

I see trouble ahead if these defence barristers are skilled at what they do.

 

[Tortoise]

more to read at link

A mother claimed her French nanny had betrayed her for a shot at stardom in a Tom Cruise movie following her arrest for murder.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, described her 21-year-old au pair Sophie Lionnet as an “evil monster” in a police interview, a court heard.

She alleged Miss Lionnet had been recruited to spy on her by her former boyfriend Mark Walton, a founding member of boy band Boyzone, in exchange for £18,000 and the promise of “fame”.

Jurors watched extracts of Kouider’s interviews and transcripts were presented in the Old Bailey trial by Detective Sergeant Rob Tickle.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2018/03/22/nanny-betrayed-mother-for-shot-at-fame/

 

[Tortoise]

[FONT=&amp]While Ouissem Medouni was trying to remove the body of the nanny ,.. , Sabrina Kouider went to pick up her children at school, at an unusually early time.[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Instead of bringing them home, she takes them to trampoline in Wandsworth, in the southern suburbs of London.[/FONT][FONT=&amp]She is back around 19:30.[/FONT][FONT=&amp]As she is not allowed by the police to enter the house, she goes to a neighbor.

At 22:25, Sabrina Kouider is arrested, suspected by the police of the murder of Sophie. " I did not do this. He [Ouissem Medouni] told me he wanted to burn things. I was in the house but I was not there. I did not know what was going to happen, "she says then. "He told me he was going to barbecue. I did not do anything wrong.




[/FONT]

https://www.20minutes.fr/faits_dive...rtre-sophie-lionnet-dit-allait-faire-barbecue

 

[Legally Bland]

[FONT=&amp]CourtNewsUK‏ @CourtNewsUK 4h4 hours agoMore

[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Fashion designer accused of murdering French nanny told police: "Do I look like somebody who could kill?"

The woman accused of murdering her nanny and burning her body on a bonfire told police she could not have killed Sophie Lionnet because it is against her religion. Ms Lionnet, 21, was battered to death after ‘brutal and oppressive inquisition’ at the hands of Sabrina Kouider – the 35-year-old ex girlfriend of Boyzone founder Mark Walton – and her current partner 40-year-old Ouissem Medouni.
[/FONT]

 

[Legally Bland]

Family friend Steven Brown told the Old Bailey he heard Ms Kouider screaming at Ms Lionnet when he visited.

[...]

Mr Brown told the court he witnessed Ms Kouider screaming at Ms Lionnet in French on more than one occasion when he visited the house in 2016.

He described Ms Kouider as "abusive and aggressive - violent", adding: "It was horrible."

"Sophie was afraid, she recoiled," he told the court.

He said the au pair looked "scared and hungry" and was wearing a jumper, which completely covered her arms and neck, at the height of summer.

"She seemed very uncomfortable, like she was in some kind of a trance or something - she didn't look right," he added.

Mr Brown said he was so worried about Ms Lionnet eating enough that he took a shepherd's pie round for her.

He said when he confronted Ms Kouider about her behaviour, she said Ms Lionnet was "lazy" and did not do enough cooking.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-43519477

 

[Tortoise]

The pair kept the 21-year-old's body in the flat for more than a week after she died, before throwing her remains on a bonfire in the back garden, an Old Bailey jury heard.

https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2018/03/23/woman-accused-of-murder-heard-screaming-at-nanny-court-told/

 

[Tortoise]

I don't know how that report can be correct. It was said before that a video of her was made on Monday 18th Sept and the bonfire was on 20th Sept.

 

[Tortoise]

Local shopkeeper Jaymani Patel said he would see Lionnet several times a week, and she seemed "very shy".

Meanwhile he had argued with Kouider over telephone cards she had bought.
"She tended to be difficult" and "aggressive verbally", he told the court.

Walton is due in court on Monday to give his testimony.

http://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/frenchwoman-screamed-at-murdered-au-pair-london-court-hears

 

[Tortoise]

Sabrina Kouider, her two children, her partner Ouissem Medouni and Sophie Lionnet lived on the ground floor, which she had rented since 2013 from a house divided into two dwellings in southwestern London.

The owner of the premises, Vladimir Valchev, explained that he had received five rent payments from Sabrina Kouider's ex-partner, Mark Walton, before the tenant accumulated unpaid debts.He explained that the latter "got angry easily" and that he was "very patient".

He ended up threatening her with expulsion at the end of August 2017, a few weeks before the firefighters discovered Sophie Lionnet's almost completely calcined body in the garden of the property.

The day before, the tenant of the house above Sabrina Kouider's house had called Vladimir Valchev, complaining of an unpleasant odor.Checked by himself, the owner had not felt anything particular.

http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1505/Mon...Lionnet-avait-l-air-effrayee-et-affamee.dhtml

 

[Tortoise]

The French reporters do a better job than our own!

 

[Legally Bland]

Giving evidence, Walton told jurors the first he heard about Lionnet was on 21 September last year when he was contacted by murder squad police.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said: “We have heard that your name was referred to by Sabrina Kouider before and after her arrest. Had you ever heard of Sophie Lionnet?”

Walton said: “Never, ever.”

Horwell asked: “Had you ever talked to her?”

He replied: “Never.”

“Had you ever communicated with her in any way?”

Walton said: “No way, never.”

The Irishman told jurors he “created” Boyzone in 1993 and was in the band for about a year before going on to be involved in Fifth Avenue. By the time he met Kouider in 2011 he was doing well financially in the music business.

Walton told jurors they met in a NatWest bank in Notting Hill and hit it off straight away. He said: “I was in love. She was my life then so ...”

He asked the bank manager who the “pretty” woman was and he said she had said the same about him, the court heard. He said he had helped Kouider financially as she pursued a career in fashion.

Kouider and Medouni have admitted perverting the course of justice but deny murder.

Walton told jurors that within about six weeks of meeting he was supporting Kouider, paying her a few thousand pounds a month. After they had been seeing each other for about a year, they moved in together in Queensway, London. He paid for Kouider’s nannies but said she would fire them over accusations of stealing and of being interested in him.

Walton said: “I actually challenged Sabrina on this. I did not believe her. I think some of them were friendly. I’m a friendly guy, but there was nothing more than that.”

The singer said they lived together for two years. On their relationship, he said: “Sabrina shared some stories from her past- I guess knowing that I felt it brought us closer together at times. But it was turbulent; probably the most turbulent relationship I had ever been in.

“She would go from softly spoken French accent, then she would flip, get very angry, very loud and just not care where we were. She would just go crazy over something trivial.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...dered-french-nanny-mark-walton-sophie-lionnet

BBM. What is this? Is it psychosis? I know you can't pigeonhole everything, but I'm struggling to understand this.

 

[Tortoise]

It's an obsessive / stalker kind of personality IMO.