11:24am Thursday 3rd July 2008
By Jon Cheetham
TWO French research students were bound and repeatedly stabbed before being set alight in a flat in New Cross.
Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez had been in the country only a matter of weeks before they were brutally murdered in a bedsit in Sterling Gardens rented by Mr Bonomo.
The 23-year-old biochemists were working on a three-month research project into DNA at Imperial College, London.
Emergency services were called to the flat after neighbours in the quiet residential cul-de-sac reported hearing and an explosion.
A fire quickly took hold in the flat which had been soaked with accelerants at about 10pm on Sunday (June 29).
Police would like to trace a white man who was seen leaving the block of flats shortly after the explosion was heard.
At a press conference this morning investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie said: "Yesterday I had to do the hardest thing I have ever done in the police, which was to break the news and gruesome details of the injuries that the boys had received to the families.
"The cause of the deaths was multiple injuries to the head, neck, torso and back.
"Both appear to have been bound during this incident.
"The extent of the injuries is horrific.
"Everyone working on this case, including myself, is deeply shocked by what we have seen.
"I have never seen injuries like this throughout my career."
He added: "I would not say this was a professional attack. "I would say it was a frenzied, horrible, horrific attack."
DCI Duthie said police were trying to build up a picture of the two students and would like to hear from anyone who knew them or knows how they spent their time in London.
He said:"We can't find anything in these men's backgrounds to suggest any involvement in criminality or that they had done anything wrong."
The flat had been broken into six days before and a laptop had been stolen.
DCI Duthie said:"The flat was broken into some six days before and that is a line of inquiry we are looking into - was this a follow up burglary?
"But the level of violence used on these two victims is excessive and horrendous."
He added that the flat appeared to be secure when the fire brigade arrived and had to force their way in.
Police have asked residents of Sterling Gardens and visitors to the area to try to recall anything suspicious they may have seen on Sunday.
Anyone with information should call 020 8721 4155 or Crimestoppers 0800 555111.
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