Second man in court over murders

Updated 06.39 Mon Jul 14 2008
Keywords: police, Metropolitan, Laurent Bonomo, French, stabbed, student, fire, Gabriel Ferez

A second man is due in court charged with the double murder of French students Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo.

Daniel Sonnex, 23, of Peckham Park Road, south-east London, has also been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and will go before Wimbledon Magistrates Court.

The badly burned bodies of the 23-year-old students were found after an explosion at a rented bedsit in New Cross, south London, on June 29

The badly burned bodies of the 23-year-old students were found after an explosion at a rented bedsit in New Cross, south London, on June 29.

Mr Bonomo had been stabbed nearly 200 times while Mr Ferez had suffered nearly 50 knife wounds.

Nigel Farmer, 33, of no fixed address, appeared at Greenwich Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

He was accused of both murders, arson and attempting to pervert the course of justice and was remanded in custody until October 16 when he will appear at the Old Bailey.

A 35-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman arrested at an address in Streatham, south London, on Wednesday have been bailed to return on dates in July and August respectively, pending further inquiries.

It is understood that the 35-year-old man is Sonnex's brother, Bernard.

Mr Bonomo and Mr Ferez were in the second year of masters degrees at the Clermont-Ferrand Polytech in the Auvergne region of central France.

Both had been selected for the Undergraduate Opportunities for Research Programme, a three-month project on DNA, in the life sciences department at Imperial College, London.

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