French student murders: parents sue over killer's parole

The parents of murdered French students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez are to sue British authorities over systematic failures in the justice system that contributed to their sons' deaths.

Olivier Ferez said tonight that an apology from the justice secretary, Jack Straw, "will not suffice" and the matter was in the hands of his lawyers.

Speaking at a press conference at Scotland Yard after two men were sentenced to life for the murders, Laurent's father, Guy Bonomo, said they knew their children "would be alive today if the British justice system had not failed us". Prosecutors described as "an orgy of bloodletting" the attacks in June last when the Frenchmen were tied up in their London flat, tortured and stabbed 244 times.

Their bodies were found after an explosion sparked by the murderers setting fire to the flat in New Cross, south-east London.

Dano Sonnex, 23, from Peckham, and Nigel Farmer, 34, of no fixed address, were convicted today, with the judge sentencing Sonnex to a minimum of 40 years and Farmer a minimum of 35 years in jail.

At the time of the murders Sonnex was out on parole under probation supervision after serving an eight-year sentence for violence and robbery.

Straw has apologised in person to the families of the victims and in February accepted the resignation of London's chief probation officer over the "grave failings" in the handling of the case. Official internal probation and police inquiry reports published alongside the verdicts identify a series of "serious management failings" by probation staff, the police and nearly every other part of the criminal justice system.

Straw said that as justice secretary he took full responsibility for the failings of the probation service. "Sonnex could and should have been in custody at the time he committed these murders," he said. "It was the consequence of very serious failures across the criminal justice system that he had not been arrested and incarcerated some weeks before."

The supervision of Sonnex was left in the hands of a newly-qualified probation officer who was struggling with a caseload of 127 offenders in the understaffed Lewisham probation office where nobody had more than two years' experience.

Among the blunders was the failure to identify Sonnex as a high-risk offender, that it took 33 days for a warrant to be issued to send him back to prison, that the courts mistakenly released him on bail, and that even then the police failed to go and look for him until the day of the murders.

On sentencing, Mr Justice Saunders told the Old Bailey the pair had only escaped being jailed without chance of parole for the "truly horrific" murders because of their young age.

He told the killers: "The misery and suffering that you have caused cannot be measured. These are the worst crimes I have ever had to deal with and, unhappily, no punishment that I can pass can ever bring any real comfort to the families.

"Only you two know exactly what happened, why it happened, and which of you bears the greater blame."

At least half of the 12 jury members were in tears as they listened to the prosecutor read out victim impact statements by the fathers of the two boys and one of their mothers. Both men and women dabbed their eyes and some struggled to compose themselves.

Guy Bonomo's statement addressed his son's killers directly. He said: "We have sat in court for the last six weeks, hoping for answers, trying to find out what happened to our children. But you have lied in court and have refused to tell the truth. This is what we have been waiting for. Without knowing what happened that night and why, we cannot move on and find peace. I ask you again, why?"

Francoise Villemont, Ferez's mother, said: "How to carry on, to live and survive after you have lost your murdered child in such inhuman conditions. He died suffering in such a way; I could never forget what was done to him. This barbaric act is indescribable and inexcusable. No human being deserves such a death. To die for so little gain does not make any sense to anybody."

The jury was told that both of the accused were habitual users of drugs, including crack cocaine, and Sonnex had a long history of violence. During the trial each blamed the other for the killings.

Sonnex had been jailed for wounding with intent and robbery in 2003 and released on licence in February last year. He was subsequently arrested for handling stolen goods and had his licence revoked. Sonnex told the court he was back in custody for "four or five weeks tops".

At the start of the trial Sonnex admitted one count of burglary, which Farmer denied. Both pleaded not guilty to murder, arson, false imprisonment and trying to pervert the course of justice.

Farmer chewed gum impassively as he listened to the jury foreman say that he had been found guilty on all six charges by a majority of 11 to one.

Sonnex's face was fixed in a frown that he cast downwards, only intermittently lifting it to look at the jury. As he was led from the dock he stared at Laurent Bonomo's father and shrugged his shoulders before going down to the cells.

In his statement released at the end of the trial, David Scott, the former chief probation officer of London who resigned over the case, said that "probation risks becoming a Cinderella service unless urgent attention is paid to its workload, over which it has few effective controls, as well as to its absence from key decision-making about policy and resources".

He said the murders filled him with regret: "I took full responsibility for the performance of the staff that I led, and tendered my resignation as soon as it was clear that failings in the probation service were partly to blame for allowing the crimes to take place."

Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said blaming individuals avoided the acceptance of political responsibility. "Ministers should either fund the criminal justice system and allow probation officers to do their job properly or stop claiming they are protecting the public. Probation did receive additional funds over the last decade but it did not result in extra probation officers."

Since the Sonnex case an extra 60 probation officers have been drafted into London with a further 80 to be recruited this year. An urgent assessment is being undertaken by the chief inspector of probation, Andrew Bridges, on the rest of London probation.

Only three years after the similar Monckton murder case caused a national outcry, probation chiefs insist that work with high-risk offenders in specialist probation public protection units across the capital has improved. But the failure in this case – where Sonnex was wrongly categorised as a medium-risk offender – shows little improvement in general probation work in London.