Red Tree Crime

THE CASE OF SOPHIE LIONNET


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A young French au pair left home to chase a dream in London. She ended up tortured, starved, and burned on a garden bonfire while her murderers barbecued chicken nearby. This is the horrific story of Sophie Lionnet.

In 2017, 21-year-old Sophie moved to Wimbledon to work as a live-in nanny for fashion designer Sabrina Kouider and her partner Ouissem Medouni [citation:1]. What should have been a fresh start became a 12-day nightmare of starvation, beatings, and interrogation. Kouider was delusional, convinced that her ex-boyfriend, Boyzone star Mark Walton, was conspiring against her and that Sophie was his spy [citation:6]. There was zero evidence for this. Walton had never even met Sophie.

Over two weeks, the couple withheld food, beat Sophie with an electrical cable, and repeatedly submerged her head in the bathtub [citation:4]. They recorded hours of forced "confessions." The abuse left her with fractures to her sternum, ribs, and jawbone [citation:1]. She drowned in the bath, her passport and plane ticket home hidden by her killers. When neighbors reported a foul smell, fire crews found the couple burning Sophie's body on a patio bonfire. Medouni claimed it was a sheep. Both received life sentences with a minimum of 30 years. Sophie's final note read: "Why me? I need help to stop them."

Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the dream home was a house of horrors.

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Red Tree CrimeBy Red Tree Crime