A man accused of the sadistic murders of two French students had tried to break into the home of an EastEnders actress 30 minutes before the killings, a court was told today.
Dano Sonnex, 23, climbed up to the window of a flat occupied by the actress Maureen Bass — stage name Laila Morse — who plays “Big” Mo Harris in the BBC soap opera, the Old Bailey heard.
Ms Bass, 63, who plays the battleaxe matriarch of Albert Square’s Slater family, is the sister of Hollywood star Gary Oldman.
The court has heard that a friend of Ms Bass had heard a noise at the rear window of the home in the early hours of the morning in New Cross, south east London.
A man at the window asked if it was “Big Mo’s house” and said he wanted her autograph. Between his teeth was the knife he later allegedly used to kill Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez after breaking into the nearby flat where they were sleeping, the court was told yesterday.
Ms Bass’s friend Sue Ann Blomfield has described in a witness statement how she was staying over that night when she disturbed a burglar.
She said: “At about 4.30am I was woken up by a noise. Something made me get out of bed and go to a window. I was only wearing a hat. I saw a man. He wasn’t in the room but had his hands on the window frame. I had the impression he was going to try and climb in.
“I said ’what the f--- are you doing?’ The man was standing on the conservatory. He put a hand up to cover his face. He said ’Is this Mo’s house?’. I said ’No, it’s my house’.
He said ’I want her signature’. I again told him to f--- off. He seemed to lose his balance and I banged on the window with both hands. He said ’You’ve done my ankle — I’m coming back.’
“I saw him climbing the fence of Maureen’s garden. I told Maureen what had happened. She called the police at about 5am.”
Nigel Farmer, who is accused with Sonnex of murdering the two French students in June last year, told the court today that they had both gone to a home of a friend at about 3am.
He claims he saw Sonnex and the friend talking in the kitchen and examining a knife. “Dano was talking about committing a burglary of Mo Slater’s from EastEnders’ house,” said Mr Farmer.
“Him and Dano went into the garden. They were out there for a little while and I wandered through the double door and Dano was on top of a lean-to. He was on top of a sort of structure and near a window.
“It looked to me as if he had a knife between his teeth and he was attempting to climb down. I was a bit taken aback by what was happening.” Mr Farmer, 34, claimed he left the house and returned to the nearby Sonnex family home where he had been staying for the previous two weeks.
He told the court that he saw Sonnex return to the home at about 8.30am covered in what appeared to be blood. “He stood in the hallway, he was crazy looking,” said Mr Farmer. “His trousers had red staining on them, and there was staining on his jacket and his jacket sleeves. He was wild-eyed and staring.” “I asked what had happened and he shrugged it off and laughed.”
The prosecution claim that Sonnex and Mr Farmer had killed Mr Bonomo and his friend Mr Ferez, both 23, after breaking into the flat where they were sleeping.
They are alleged to have tortured the men for more than two hours for their bank card PIN codes before stabbing them a total of 250 times in an “orgy of bloodletting”.
Mr Farmer has denied any role in the murders and said today that when Sonnex returned home he bathed, changed his clothes and bleached the carpet in the hallway and stairs.
Later that day Mr Farmer says he threw the knife used by Sonnex into the River Thames and bought two cans of petrol to set fire to the flat where the French students had been killed.
Mr Farmer told the court that he was later told by Sonnex and his father, Bernard Sonnex, that he had stabbed a friend in a disagreement. They said that Sonnex had received a cut and that this DNA was at the property.
“They said can I do them a favour and set fire to the place because they had looked after me for a few weeks,” he told the court. “I didn’t want to do it. I have never set fire to anything in my life, let alone a flat.”
Both men deny murder, arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered and false imprisonment. Sonnex admits a charge of burglary, which Mr Farmer denies.
The trial continues.
Source:The times
search the web
Custom Search
