The grief-stricken parents of murdered French students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez tonight said they will prosecute British authorities over failures in the justice system which allowed their sons’ deaths.
At a press conference at Scotland Yard, Guy Bonomo said the parents knew their children “would be alive today if the British justice system had not failed us”.
Olivier Ferez said the apologies given by British justice secretary Jack Straw “will not suffice” and the matter was “in process” with his lawyers.
Earlier outside court Mr Bonomo lashed out after the judge showed mercy to his son’s “sadistic” killers.
Mr Bonomo said Dano Sonnex and Nigel Farmer, who stabbed his son and fellow student Gabriel Ferez 244 times, were “animals” who should never be let out.
The victims, both 23, died in an “orgy of bloodletting” after being tied up by the drug-fuelled killers and tortured for nearly three hours.
Relatives were horrified to learn that convicted knife thug Sonnex was only free to kill because of a catastrophic series of errors in the justice system.
They were left bewildered when Mr Justice Saunders jailed them for life but said they should one day be eligible for release as they were too young to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Guy Bonomo (45), who had urged the judge to rule that they should never be free, reacted angrily to the decision, describing the men as “animals”.
He said: “We were hoping for a more severe sentence. I think that these people should never get out, they should not get out.”
Mr Justice Saunders said although Sonnex and Farmer had killed for pleasure, it would be a “terrible punishment” to give them whole-life tariffs.
Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Ferez looked shell-shocked as he said: “I suffered terribly to think all this could have been avoided.”
He said no sentence would have brought satisfaction but he thought the judge was “a bit cautious”.
Mr Ferez, a 47-year-old psychiatric nurse, said the attackers had psychological problems but were “not the only ones that are responsible”.
He said “the excuses” of Mr Straw were “authentic and sincere” but he added: “An apology will not suffice.”
Mr Bonomo said: “In spite of the sympathetic words that have been addressed to us, we do intend to prosecute.
“We heard in court that other persons contributed to their murders and now we know for a fact that our children would be alive today if the British justice system had not failed us.”
Sonnex (23), swaggered from the dock, winking at his family and pretending to whistle after the judge said his eventual release should be considered “as a matter of mercy” after he has served 40 years of his life sentence.
Farmer (34) will be eligible for parole after 35 years of his life term.
The judge said: “When you are old and in poor health the parole board can, if they think it right and safe, release you on licence - but it may be that you will never be released.”
Justice secretary Jack Straw has already apologised to the families after it emerged that Sonnex should have been recalled to prison before the murders.
He was out on licence after serving time for a previous violent offence but had gone straight back to his life of crime.
Yet mistakes by the probation service led to a delay in issuing a recall notice, which was then only acted on after 16 days by police.
Officers did not go to arrest him until hours after the students were killed on June 29th last year.
Mr Bonomo’s mother Lydie said if it were not for these mistakes her son would still be alive today.
David Scott, head of the London probation service, has resigned, saying the organisation was “partly to blame” for what happened.
According to a review by the National Offender Management Service there were “striking similarities” with the blunders that left robber Damien Hanson unsupervised to murder banker John Monckton in November 2004.
A sergeant has been disciplined after an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation found “confusion, poor communication and weak procedures” meant police failed to protect the students from the “terrible threat” posed by Sonnex.
The two victims, dressed only in their underpants, had been woken in the night and tied up after Sonnex and Farmer climbed through an open window of Mr Bonomo’s flat in New Cross, south London, in June last year.
They stole games consoles, mobile phones and bank cards, which they used to withdraw £360.
Fuelled by drink and drugs, the robbers egged each other on to an “inhuman” attack of “brutal and sustained ferocity”, the Old Bailey heard.
It was described by prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC as an attack of “unmitigated evil” and an “orgy of bloodletting”.
Mr Bonomo - who Farmer later said “just wouldn’t die” - was stabbed 194 times and Mr Ferez suffered 50 knife wounds, some of them after his death.
Hours later Farmer torched the bedsit, leaving firefighters to find both victims bound at the ankles and wrists and their heads wrapped in towels. Mr Bonomo’s fold-out bed was saturated in blood.
The flat was covered in burnt debris and feathers from where pillows and duvets had exploded in the fire.
It was described in court as a scene of “almost unimaginable horror”.
The judge said: “I am satisfied that the only possible reason for the number of stab wounds is that the killings were sadistic. The killers got pleasure from what they were doing.”
Detective Superintendent Mick Duthie said: “This was total carnage. It was almost like they were treated like animals.”
Mr Aylett said: “These two bright, talented and engaging young men had brilliant futures ahead of them. They were dearly loved by their families and friends. Neither of them had an enemy in the world.”
Old Bailey jurors wept today as the victims’ parents paid tribute to them.
Mr Ferez’s mother Francoise Villement (46) said: “I was, I am and always will be very proud of my son, who was a talented and exceptional human being with a pure and gentle soul.
“I cannot emphasise enough how much he loved life. He has been savagely killed to satisfy a very destructive need. For me only a devil is capable of doing this.”
Guy Bonomo said of his son: “I am tormented by images of his suffering.”
He told the killers: “I wish from the bottom of my heart that you will stay in prison for the rest of your lives.
“I can’t bear to think that someone so evil will walk the streets again.”
Farmer appeared to be chewing gum as their victim impact statements were read out and Sonnex was leaning back in his chair.
Earlier, after being found guilty he had shrugged and smiled at Mr Bonomo, who responded by apparently blowing him a kiss.
Sonnex, of Peckham, and Farmer, of no fixed address, were each convicted by the jury of both murders by an 11-1 majority after deliberating for more than 20 hours following a five-week trial.
PA