Police arrest murder suspect

Updated 19.06 Thu Jul 10 2008

Scotland Yard have made a fresh arrest over the murder of two French students.

A 23-year-old man was seized at 6.30pm on Thursday in Peckham, se London, Scotland Yard confirmed.

The arrest came after a 33-year-old man appeared in court today accused of the double murder of Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo

The arrest came after a 33-year-old man appeared in court accused of the double murder of Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo.

The pair, both 23, were found bound and stabbed to death in a bedsit in New Cross, southeast London, which had been set alight.

Unemployed Nigel Farmer, of no fixed address, appeared at Greenwich Magistrates' Court charged with their murder.

Farmer, who is also accused of arson and attempting to pervert the course of justice, was remanded in custody until October 16, when he will appear at the Old Bailey.

Police made two further arrests in connection with the murders on Wedneday night.

A 35-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman are being questioned after they were detained at an address in Streatham, south London.

The badly-burned bodies of the two students were found after an explosion at a rented bedsit in New Cross.

Investigators found they had been bound, gagged and tortured before petrol or a similar inflammable liquid was splashed on and around their bodies.

Police said a strong smell of accelerant remained at the property hours after the blaze had been put out by firefighters.

Mr Bonomo was stabbed nearly 200 times, up to 80 of the wounds inflicted after he was dead, while Mr Ferez suffered nearly 50 knife wounds.

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