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Met Police
A couple who tortured and killed their nanny before dumping her body on a fire in their garden have both been jailed for a minimum of 30 years.
Sabrina Kouider, 35, and Ouissem Medouni, 40, became obsessed Sophie Lionnet, 21, was helping ex-Boyzone singer Mark Walton abuse people at their home in south-west London.
French national Ms Lionnet's body was found on 20 September last year.
Kouider and Medouni were jailed by Old Bailey judge Nicholas Hilliard QC.
The couple were found guilty of murder following a trial in which they blamed one another for Ms Lionnet's killing in their bath, each saying they were asleep at the time .
"Vindictive and overbearing" Kouider attempted to frame her ex-boyfriend Mr Walton for Ms Lionnet's disappearance as "revenge", the court heard.
The court heard the couple subjected Ms Lionnet to "relentless intimidation" to make her admit she was in league with the pop star.
Judge Hilliard said: "I'm sure on all the evidence you were both involved in torturing Sophie in the bath in the lead up to her death in making her think she would drown unless you gave her information you wanted which was not in her power to give because it did not exist.
"The suffering and the torture you put her through before her death was prolonged and without pity."
Jurors heard more than eight hours of recordings in which Ms Lionnet was slapped and called "worse than a murderer" by her tormentors at their home in Southfields.
Kouider and Medouni dunked her head into water, starved her, hit her with an electrical cable and beat her so badly she had five broken ribs and a cracked breast bone, the jury was told.
Hours before her death, a film showed an emaciated Ms Lionnet apparently confess that she had drugged Medouni so Mr Walton could sexually assault him.
The couple then killed her before throwing her body on the bonfire in their garden as they barbecued chicken nearby.
When neighbours alerted firefighters to the pungent smoke, Medouni told them the charred remains were a sheep, the court heard.