UK:TWO GIFTED French students found stabbed to death after a fire at a London flat were bound and tortured in what detectives yesterday described as one of the most horrific attacks they had ever seen.
The bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were found in a ground-floor flat in southeast London on Sunday night. They were stabbed more than 200 times in an apparently motiveless attack before the flat was set alight. The pair were promising research students who had been working on a DNA project at Imperial College, London.
Ferez's sister Hélène (19) described the moment she was told of his death as "the worst experience of my life". "Nothing can change what's happened, but I want to know who did this, and why. I will do absolutely anything to find the person or persons who did it," she said in a Facebook message yesterday.
"He was an exceptional boy who would have done anything for anyone. He was incredibly intelligent, proud and enormously capable. He didn't deserve this and neither did Laurent."
Scotland Yard said the flat had been broken into six days earlier, when a laptop was stolen. It is understood that the thief was disturbed by one of the students.
DCI Mick Duthie, who is leading the inquiry, said police were investigating the possibility that the theft was linked to the killings. Another theory being examined by the police is that the pair were victims of mistaken identity.
Police said the attack did not appear to be the work of professionals. "I would say it was a frenzied, horrible, horrific attack. I imagine it would take some considerable amount of time to inflict the nature of the injuries," Insp Duthie said.
Police said there was no evidence of forced entry, and a set of keys may have been used, enabling the attacker to surprise his victims.
Both men were several weeks into internships at Imperial College that would have finished at the end of this month. The three-month laboratory placements were part of their second year of biochemistry at Clermont Ferrand polytechnic, one of France's most prestigious scientific institutions.
Dr David Leak, a senior lecturer in the faculty of natural sciences at Imperial, described Mr Ferez as a "polymath" who had accepted an offer to do a chemistry masters course.
Before arriving in Britain this year, both men had entered enthusiastically into the spirit of university life at Clermont Ferrand.
Mr Bonomo, from the village of Velaux near Aix-en-Provence, had been the elected student president and was described by friends yesterday as sociable, kind and funny. He had been engaged to marry his long-term girlfriend.
Mr Ferez, too, was a popular face around campus. The talented student, from a tiny village called Prouzel in the northeast of France, was a member of the arts society and had worked during his holidays as a technician at the local hospital.
The pair were killed at Bonomo's bedsit in a quiet cul-de-sac in New Cross, southeast London. Both were bound and stabbed in the head, back, torso and neck. The flat was then doused in petrol and set alight. Detectives said the men were dead before the fire started.
A pathologist later documented 243 separate injuries to their badly-burned bodies. - (Guardian service)