LONDON: A French couple was on Thursday found guilty of murdering their 21-year-old au pair and then burning her body on a bonfire in their London garden in September last year.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, broke into tears after she and partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, were found guilty by a jury at London’s Old Bailey court of murdering French live-in nanny Sophie Lionnet.

“Only Kouider and Medouni know exactly how they killed Sophie but the prosecution was able to prove that she died as a result of purposeful and sustained violence, and not by accident,” said state prosecutor Aisling Hosein.

“They were both jointly involved and came up with a plan to try and destroy her body and escape responsibility for this horrendous crime,” she added.

The jurors deliberated for a week before unanimously convicting Kouider and ruling by a majority decision of 10 to 2 that her partner Medouni was guilty.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018