Triple nominated at the True Crime Awards and nominated Best British True-Crime Podcast at the British Podcast Awards, also hailed as 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Channel's Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
12 Sterling Gardens, New Cross @Googlemaps2025 April2023
EPISODE THREE HUNDRED AND TEN: In the summer of 2008, two brilliant French scholars - Gabriel Ferez & Laurent Bonomo – were studying at this facility on a three-month placement as part of their degree in biochemistry. As students who excelled, here they met likeminded scientists on their journey to become the best they could be, but with this city being so expensive, they also came across two of the worst examples of London’s scum.
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MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: Two students tortured because their killer couldn’t recall four digits. Find out why on Murder Mile. Today, I’m standing outside of the South Kensington campus of Imperial College London, SW7; two streets east of the shattered memory of Gunther Podola, three streets south of the stolen womanhood of Alvada Kooken, and a short walk from the bad bingo caller’s banger - coming soon to Murder Mile. On Exhibition Road just shy of Hyde Park sits the Natural Sciences Faculty of Imperial College London, a learned establishment for the smartest of brainboxes who dedicate their time to clever things; like reading BIG books with LONG words and usually NO photos. Unlike most students who blow three years of study slumped in a heap, humping a scrubber, chugging a keg, mooning their butt crack to all residents this side of Harrods, and spattering every pavement with 8 litres of cider-stinking chunder. But learning about each other’s culture is a big part of university life. In the summer of 2008, two brilliant French scholars - Gabriel Ferez & Laurent Bonomo – were studying at this facility on a three-month placement as part of their degree in biochemistry. As students who excelled, here they met likeminded scientists on their journey to become the best they could be, but with this city being so expensive, they also came across two of the worst examples of London’s scum. My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 310: Tortured for Digits. Gabriel Alain Daniel Ferez was destined to be one of life’s winners. Born in 1985, in the leafy French village of Prouzel in Picardy, northern France, Gabriel was the eldest of three to Francoise & Olivier, and together he was raised in a quaint little farmhouse surrounded by vineyards beside the River Selle. They weren’t wealthy, they lived simply, they had issues as all families do, and even though his parents had divorced, they maintained a stable life for their children’s sake and raised them well; filling their heads with life skills and ethical goodness, their hearts with positivity and hope, and their morals with the difference between right and wrong, as good parents raise good children, but bad parents don’t. As a child whose father was a nurse, Gabriel couldn’t help but become fascinated by science, and even before his teens at the Louis Thuillier secondary school in Amiens, he shone at chemistry, physics and maths, and during his summer holidays, he volunteered as a technician at Amiens hospital to educate himself further. He read avidly and travelled widely, taking part in an exchange programme in Mexico. His father described him as “the most intelligent, affectionate, wonderful son anyone could want”, his sister said he was “an exceptional boy who would do anything for anyone”, and an ex-girlfriend stated he was “my love, my treasure and my best friend” - he was liked by everyone and for good reason. In 2006, Gabriel won a place to study biochemistry at Polytech Clermont-Ferrand, one of France's most prestigious scientific institutions, and it was here that he met his new best friend, Laurent Bonomo. Likewise, raised right by his parents in Velaux, a provincial village in the Cote de’Azur, Laurent Bonomo was described as a "fantastic, fun-loving, exuberant guy". Said to be “sociable, kind and funny”, it’s no surprise that he was elected student president, that he excelled at science, and by 2008, he was in his third year of a master's degree in biochemistry and both he and Gabriel were described as “two model students with such unblemished records and glittering futures”. They were popular, well liked, and as the director of the university stated “they were the ones you knew would go on to do great things". But for Laurent, it wasn’t all about his degree, as ten months earlier, he had fallen in love with Marie Bertez, a student at the University in Valenciennes, and as his father said “'he changed after meeting Marie. He became more responsible and was ready to settle down”, and being so madly in love, with plans to marry when his studies was over, in April 2008, Marie & Laurent entered a 'civil partnership'. She called him her beloved 'Lolo'… but their lives would change forever, when he moved to London. At the start of May 2008, Gabriel & Laurent flew to the UK to live and take part in a 3-month exchange programme at Imperial College London. Studying at the Natural Sciences Faculty beside the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, they were here to research protein chains within DNA, but it wasn’t all about work. Quickly, they became part of the university's union and clubs, as a polymath Laurent rarely lost in any chess championships, and they were described as “mature and sensible”. It was a fantastic opportunity for two bright students, but coming from rural French villages to a major metropolitan city would have seemed daunting, especially in London. Built not by plan but by a history of plagues and corruption, blitz bombings and disasters, London is a city where the safest street often runs parallel to a gangland cesspool, and millionaire’s mansion may be next door to a dingy crack-den. If you don’t know London; you won’t know where to go, how to walk about, and when to run like hell, and like many newcomers needing a place to stay to this city, they moved to where they could afford. Together they shared a small flat in South Norwood, far out of London near Croydon, but as Laurent wanted a little bit of privacy for when his fiancé Marie came to visit, he moved to New Cross. South London has seen spikes and spirals of wealth and poverty across its varied and violent history, but with New Cross embracing a recent renovation, it had become a hub for creatives and the aspirational, but it is still surrounded by pockets of poverty riddled with despair and deprivation, in places like Deptford. Gabriel’s grandmother recalled calling him, he loved travelling and had spent a year in the chaotic and often dangerous city of Mexico “but nothing prepared him for London”. That year, 17 people had been stabbed to death in London, mostly by morons with no brain cells, just big knives and bad attitudes. A columnist for the French website Le Figaro's wrote “I've lived in London for 10 years and there are many places known for robbery, violence and murder where I don't go. The embassies and consulates won't tell you that, so you have to find it out for yourself”, and with knife crime rising and an influx of chemically dubious drugs for those too afraid to face the reality of life, some streets were no-go zones. Thankfully, Laurent found a nice flat in New Cross in a quiet cul-de-sac occupied by students and young professionals. It was a ground-floor flat at 12 Sterling Gardens in Admiral Court; built in the 1990s, it was clean and affordable, and although a resident later said “you hear of trouble around here, gangs and things, but if you keep your head down you will be alright”, that’s exactly what these boys did. Gabriel’s grandmother said “he was finding life tough in London… he was lonely, and Gabriel & Laurent were looking forward to getting back to France”. They had both been in London for just six weeks… …but they would never return home alive. Daniel Sonnex (nicknamed ‘Dano’, ‘DD’ and even ‘Mad Dog’ by the morons who praised his bad deeds) was a pointless waste of space who never had a chance to succeed being raised by such bad parents. By 2008, his dad, Bernard Snr had amassed 26 convictions and had been in prison six times for robbery, burglary, theft, firearms and drug offences, with 47 charges for the protection rackets he ran in pubs and bars. Bernard and the Sonnex family were said to be infamous, but you rarely see old and wealthy criminal, as mostly, they end up broke as a bigger bad-ass takes over their scams and relegates them to petty pinching or an early grave, which is why they lived in a crappy house on Etta Street in Deptford. According to Daniel Sonnex, his dad drank heavily and was erratically violent, "he‘d kick us all out onto the street in his rages… people were always coming round asking for money and trying to get him", they were known to Social Services and Police regularly raided the house looking for drugs and guns. It’s no surprise that – aged 10 – Sonnex was excluded from primary school, and although he was meant to be educated at a tuition centre a few hours a day, he spent his childhood drinking, smoking cannabis and in his early teens, he became a thief, a burglar and had a £100-a-day addiction to heroin and crack. His bad parents had made him into this monster, which is not to excuse him for his brutal and sadistic crimes, as even those from worse backgrounds have flourished, as all it takes is brains and courage. As for his siblings, Sonnex’s sister, Louise, a mum of two received a five-year sentence for GBH having broken her dad’s girlfriend’s arm with a golf club, and a conviction for glassing a woman threatening ‘I'll open her up like a can of beans’ when she accused her brother Bernard of rape. By 2008, Bernard Jnr, his brother had served ten prison terms for 34 offences including robbery, aggravated burglary and witness intimidation, and once shoved a gun into the mouth of a DJ for not playing Bob Marley. So again, it’s no surprise that Daniel Sonnex wasted his life, and became a useless thug and drug addict. In 2003, aged 17, he was sentenced to eight years at Portland Young Offender's Institute for wounding with intent, resisting arrest, attempted robbery, wounding and four charges of violent robbery. He served five years, of which he spent long periods confined in segregation owing to his bad attitude and violence to prisoners and staff, he was transferred several times between Reading, Aylesbury and Feltham, and when he attended an anger management class, he later stated “it only made me angry”. He was just a kid who had spent the first part of his adulthood in prison, and although he was already being seen as a danger to society… it was a catalogue of failures which kept this killer on the streets. In May 2004, one year into his sentence, a prison doctor assessed him and stated “he admits that his reactions could kill”, suggesting he knew that he had no control over his anger and aggression. His file stated “he is a very troubled young man” with a history of violent crime and 40 incidents during his first year in prison for drugs, fighting and arson, but none of this data was shared with anyone else. In July 2007, having gone through a drug withdrawal programme, he was calmer and less paranoid, but although he was considered ‘high risk’, on the 8th of February 2008, he was wrongly categorised as ‘medium risk’, and this serious mistake wasn’t spotted as the printer in the probation office broke. Released early from prison, this ‘medium risk’ felon wasn’t supervised by the Police as he should have been, but was handed to Susanne Blaine, a newly qualified probation officer with only a few months experience and three times the workload, with 127 criminals to monitor at the same time. In her own words, “I couldn’t cope” and lacking the support she needed, more mistakes let this criminal walk free. On the 10th of February 2008, Sonnex and an accomplice tied up a pregnant woman and her boyfriend, put pillowcases over their heads, threatened them with a hammer, a saw and a knife, and demanded money. But with the couple too terrified to bring charges (likely having been threatened by his family), Daniel Sonnex wasn’t recalled to prison, his parole wasn’t reviewed, and he received a verbal warning. On the 23rd of April 2008, while on parole, Sonnex was arrested for stealing a handbag from a pub, but instead of being instantly recalled to prison, he was placed on bail and with the Police failing to inform his probation officer of this for five days, on the 28th of April, he was finally sent back to HMP Belmarsh. And then, on the 16th of May at Greenwich Magistrates Court, a mix-up (and the government’s need to ‘ease prison overcrowding’) meant he was granted ‘unconditional bail’ and walked free. Two weeks later, on the 1st of June, an arrest warrant was issued but the Police failed to execute it for 16 days… …a failure which directly led to the brutal torture and murder of Gabriel Ferez & Laurent Bonomo. It began as innocently as any other petty crime, as this wasn’t an act of hatred but opportunism, when on Monday 23rd of June 2008 at roughly 6am, while Laurent was taking a shower in his ground floor flat at 12 Sterling Gardens, a burglar entered via an open window and stole his laptop. It wasn’t worth much, he thought little of it, and although the Police dusted for fingerprints, it was never recovered. By Sunday 29th, with the theft at the back of his mind, Gabriel & Laurent went to Wimbledon to watch the tennis, but being the middle Sunday of the championships, there was no matches being played. With the sun warm and the air cool, they walked along the Thames chatting about life and science, Laurent was excited as his girlfriend Marie was staying the next day, and having caught the District Line to Cannon Street and a train to New Cross, at 9pm they grabbed a McDonald’s and headed home. That night, in the flat, the two sat playing games on the PlayStation, and by midnight, with Laurent on a pull-out bed and Gabriel beside him on the futon, feeling tired, they both headed off to sleep. It was a night as ordinary as any other, but elsewhere in the city, very bad people were doing very bad things. 34-year-old Nigel Edward Farmer was described as “a wannabe bad boy. He wanted people to respect him and thought that he had to be feared, but he was in way too deep”. Booted out of his own home by his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, Farmer was crashing on Sonnex’s sofa at their Etta Street home in Deptford, and it was said “he was intimidated by the Sonnex’s, he was their bitch". 12 years his senior, Farmer had one conviction, a three-year sentence in 1997 for a knifepoint robbery having also developed a £100-a-day cocaine and heroin habit, which totalled £36,500 a year. On the 25th of May, one month before the double murders, Farmer checked into Oxleas, a psychiatric unit in Woolwich having slashed his wrists. Four days later he discharged himself, and was “still feeling low”. On the night of Sunday the 29th of June, Sonnex & Farmer had been drinking heavily, addling their tiny minds with a cocktail of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy, and having been robbed of the coke they had tried to sell, they burgled several houses in Sittingbourne, but blew the money they stole on drugs. It’s baffling that they didn’t get caught, as with neither man wearing black but dressed to go boozing – with Sonnex in a two-piece jeans-jacket and a flat-cap like a poor man’s Guy Ritchie, and Farmer like the loser of a Bez from the Happy Monday’s look-a-like competition – they stuck out like sore thumbs. But as burglars do when they’re desperate, broke and willing to steal anything for a hit, they returned to the scene of an old crime knowing that the items they’d already nicked would have been replaced. At around 5am, roughly around dawn, Sonnex & Farmer sauntered into Admiral Court in New Cross. It was quiet, empty, and with the window of the living room to Flat 12 of Sterling Gardens slightly ajar as the night was warm, as Sonnex claimed he kept watch, Farmer (as his patsy) was ordered inside. Gabriel & Laurent were fast asleep when Farmer crept in; he didn’t know them, he’d never met them, he didn’t give a crap about their achievements or that one was to be married soon, all he cared about was swiping the new laptop, getting out unseen (as burglars are cowards), and selling it to buy drugs. The problem was that Farmer was utterly useless as a burglar. Within seconds, he’d knocked a glass off a windowsill causing Gabriel & Laurent to wake with a start. Later blabbing to the Police, Sonnex claimed “I heard him shout 'D! D! Come in. I need a hand'”, and as he climbed inside, “I saw one guy”, Gabriel sitting on a futon “talking in French very, very loudly", as Farmer held Laurent in a headlock, “his hand around his neck, pushing his head on the pillow of the bed, aggressively saying, 'stay down, stay down'… I grabbed the other one, but wasn't fighting back". All of this Sonnex claimed to recuse himself of the most heinous of crimes, which Farmer flatly refuted. Again, although associates stated that Farmer “lived in fear of Daniel Sonnex”, Sonnex told the court “(Farmer) tied up (Laurent) and ordered me to bind the other one’s feet and ankles” with a pair of his girlfriend’s stockings which had been left behind, and a set of towels wrapped around their heads so the students couldn’t see, couldn’t shout and could only speak when the burglars needed them to. Gabriel & Laurent were smart, they knew not to excite or anger these jittery and aggressive addicts, as being two slim-framed bookworms who were bound and blindfolded on a bed in their underpants, they didn’t stand a chance if they fought back. Besides, all the burglars wanted was money and goods which could be replaced, so as Farmer ransacked the flat, Sonnex recalled in his defence, “one spoke a little English, said something about his girlfriend, I know that for sure. I said 'just keep thinking about your girlfriend’", as soon enough the burglars would be gone, and the whole incident would be over. Being students, there wasn’t much to steal; the laptop hadn’t been replaced, so Farmer swiped their mobile phones which were Motorola RAZR V3’s worth £74 each if new (but £20 stolen), two Sony PSP handheld game consoles worth £130 if new (but £50 stolen), a little cash and Laurent’s bank card. Again, both men were smart, so when Sonnex claimed that Farmer asked for the PIN number, Laurent was “very compliant” and gave him those four meaningless digits, as only able to withdraw £200 a day, it would be stupid to lie, especially as they knew the burglars wouldn’t leave when they got it. And that’s what they did. With Farmer holding the two students hostage with a kitchen knife to their throats, Sonnex walked to the ATM at the Western Union on nearby Deptford High Street. So proud was Farmer of his pathetic little heist that he phoned Bernard, Daniel Sonnex’s brother to brag, and was heard shouting at one of the terrified students “shut your fucking mouth or I'll cut your hand off'”. This is where an education would have been useful, but having left school aged 11, learned nothing from his dad but theft, spent most of his childhood on drugs and almost all of his adulthood in prison, when Sonnex popped the cash card into the ATM, he only had to remember four simple numbers… …but he couldn’t. He hadn’t written them down, he didn’t think to phone Farmer, and instead, getting angry at the ATM, he took a guess at the PIN, but it was wrong. He took another punt at the digits, but again, he cocked that up. And as this brainless junkie jabbed at the keypad, hoping that he’d miraculously solve this 1 in a 1000 chance of getting the code right, instead he messed it up, and the ATM swallowed the card. With it stuck inside the belly of this alarmed system, he left, with nothing, not even his dignity. It was his fault, all of it, but as a paranoid addict from a criminal family who understood nothing but violence, he couldn’t see his own failure, as to him there were only two people to blame for his lack of brains. It was said that Sonnex returned to the flat at about 8am… and that’s when the torture began. Detective Superintendent Mick Duthie said “it was speculated that owing to the level of violence that the killer or killers were on crack cocaine”. Described as ‘an orgy of bloodletting’, “they were treated like animals… it was carnage, there was blood up the walls and the ceiling”, as they were tortured for any items of value, but they had given all they had; two phones, two games consoles and a cash card. With a pitiful haul of just £140, which would barely buy these addicts half-a-day’s drugs each… …Sonnex’s fury was unleashed. Over two hours, both students had 243 wounds inflicted upon them; with the knife driven into Gabriel’s bound and helpless body 47 times, as the blade penetrated his head, neck, back and chest with such force that his skull was skewered as the knife severed his brain. And with Farmer stating of Laurent “he wouldn’t die”, being stabbed with a sadistic sustained ferocity, the same knife had savaged his brain and body 196 times, 100 of which happened after he was dead. At about 10am, five hours after they had begun, with next-to-nothing in their pockets, the flat and the bodies were soaked in petrol, set alight, and as smoke and flames licked out of the window, two bangs were heard, so loud, that they startled the neighbours, and the fire brigade made a grisly discovery. And as if this catalogue of failure which let this killer walk free hadn’t done enough damage, ironically, at 2pm that day, the Police finally actioned the warrant to recall Sonnex to prison, but when they got to his parent’s house in Deptford where he’d been sighted, he and Farmer escaped over the back wall. Codenamed Operation Dockery, it seemed like a targeted hit but there was no obvious motive for the students to be tortured, the stolen items were searched for but never found, and although detectives said “it was clearly a frenzied horrible attack… it did not appear to be the work of professionals”. Sonnex & Farmer were as useless as burglars as they were as killers, as having set fire to the flat while they were both still inside, that first explosion occurred when a portable gas heater caught light, and as Farmer fled the scene with his hands scorched and his face badly burned, two neighbours saw him. On the 6th of July 2008, with an e-Fit and his description released; “a white male, 30 to 40, slim, white trainers, blue jeans, dark top with the ‘Junfan’ on it” like a piss-poor Bez impersonator, the next day, he handed himself in at Lewisham Police Station… or at least he tried to, as being the final insult in this catalogue of failures, he had to wait to be seen, as the receptionist thought he was joking. (End) Luckily, Farmer waited in line, confessed to a detective, and on 12th of July being charged with arson, aggravated burglary and both murders, with no honour among thieves. he gave-up the name of Daniel Sonnex. Tracked to his grandmother’s house in Peckham, Sonnex was caught climbing out of a skylight. Tried at the Old Bailey on the 24th of April 2009, although Sonnex admitted to one count of burglary, they denied all other charges including murder, and to save themselves, they blamed each other. Deliberating on the 29th of May, a majority verdict found them guilty of all charges. On the 4th of June, sentenced to life, Nigel Farmer was told he must serve a minimum of 35 years, meaning he won’t be eligible for parole until 2044, and (as the most sadistic of the pair), Daniel Sonnex must serve 40 years. But given his bad attitude, it’s likely he’ll never be released, unless the authorities foul it all up, again. In court, most of the jurors cried as Gabriel & Laurent’s parents read their victim impact statements, Laurent’s fiancé, Marie, had to leave the court when she saw Sonnex, stating her only emotion was that she wanted to kill him: “It was pure hatred. He is not human. He's a savage, a monster”. And yet, as Sonnex was led away to spend the rest of his life in prison, he winked to his father, whistling as he swaggered away, not appreciating that it was his dad’s piss poor parenting which made him that way. As predicted, it’s highly likely that Daniel Sonnex will never be released, as on the 19th of June 2010 at HMP Long Lartin, having supposedly converted to Islam, he attacked Richard Stringfellow, a prison guard with a vegetable knife having held him hostage. Said to be foaming at the mouth, Sonnex is now held at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital having built a glider out of a mattress, a fridge and coat hangers to make his escape as he feared that French & British agents wanted to assassinate him, as he claimed that Gabriel & Laurent’s murder was a government cover-up, as the students “were about to expose the bird flu virus". Sonnex had since been diagnosed with a low IQ and a ‘severe personality disorder’. The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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