THE parents of murdered French students Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo have described their grief.

In impact statements read out in court before killers Dano Sonnex and Nigel Farmer were sentenced, the students' parents talked of their pain and suffering since the murders on June 29 last year.

Gabriel Ferez's mother Francoise Villemont:

"I could never forget what was done to him. This barbaric act is indescribable and inexcusable. No human being deserves such a death.

"To die for so little gain does not make any sense to anybody.

"My son Gabriel wanted to live. He loved life and everything it had to offer. Even from a very young age he was keen to embrace his surroundings and very open to the world and its culture.

"My life stopped on June 29, 2008. I feel battered and bruised as a mother forever scarred. I can no longer live an ordinary life."

She added: "Nothing can make me forget the gratuitous torture inflicted upon my loving son. My daughter and younger son's lives have been shattered forever.

"Our beloved has been snatched from us for the rest of our lives. I can no longer make sense of my life.

"Gabriel, when I go into your bedroom and see your clothes, look at your study papers and all the things that you grew up with, I cry out to you from the bottom of my heart. You should still be here, but you are not.

"I wait for your return every day. I cannot believe that I will never see you again. My heart suffers from the deepest wound from which it will never recover."

Gabriel Ferez's father Olivier:

"I am finding myself for the first time in my life sitting in a criminal court and I have found it very difficult to just listen.

"The language barrier of course has reinforced my feeling of isolation.

"My wish to understand what is incomprehensible has led to a feeling of immense weariness, added to many months of waiting, pain, despair, anxiety, and disillusions about many things, including our societies and the worse they give us to experience with this trial."

He added: "I can no longer stand hearing people complain about trivial problems in a supermarket queue for instance.

"I might also tell you that every morning on my way to work, I cry, always at the same hour.

"I no longer know how to answer people when they ask how many children I have.

"I might tell you that I do not sleep at night and I fill it with the sound of the radio to occupy my mind and stop thinking.

"I might tell you that I feel ashamed of laughing now. I might tell you that I look elsewhere whenever I come across the sight of a wedding, of other people's happiness because the display of their joy is like so many stab wounds to my heart."

Laurent Bonomo's father Guy:

"You were not satisfied with breaking in and stealing his computer a week before you killed him.

"After the burglary, Laurent was terrified. He cried on the phone to me and I tried to comfort and reassure him.

"It was then that I realised that although a young man, he was still my little boy.

"I explained to Laurent that he'd grown up in a sheltered student environment and was naïve about the outside world.

"He was easy prey to people like you. I told him to be vigilant at all times.

"He needed to grow up quickly if he was going to marry and have children with his fiancée Marie."

He added: "I wish from the bottom of my heart that you will stay in prison for the rest of your lives.

"I can't bear to think that someone so evil will walk the streets again, that my daughter or a member of my family could encounter you again.

"I appeal to you as Laurent's father to have a conscience. To end our misery and suffering by one day telling the truth about our son's final hours."