AN alleged killer of two French students has been accused of telling a jury “total lies”.

Dano Sonnex was giving evidence at the Old Bailey where he stands accused, along with Nigel Farmer, of killing Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez during a burglary.

Sonnex was asked twice to calm down by Judge John Saunders, as he was cross-examined by Farmer's counsel John Ryder today (May 20).

Sonnex claims Farmer got into the bedsit in Sterling Gardens, New Cross, on June 29 last year and he followed his co-defendant inside.

The defendant says Farmer had Mr Bonomo by the neck and that he bound Mr Ferez, who was talking loudly in French.

Sonnex says he went out to withdraw money on the students' bank cards and when he returned to the flat, the men were dead.

He was asked how it was the students had not fought back when the pair entered the bedsit.

Mr Ryder told him: “Your account is total lies.

“You terrified those two men with a knife.”

Sonnex said: “No, I did not.”

Mr Ryder went on: “You stabbed not only to the body but also to the eye didn't you?”

Sonnex denied this.

Sonnex said Farmer was “hissing” and “out of his nut on drugs” when he got back there after going to the cash machine.

Mr Ryder suggested that somebody else had been involved instead of Farmer and mentioned Sonnex's older brother Bernie.

But Sonnex said: “No, it was just me and my friend.”

Farmer claims he was at the Sonnex family home in Etta Street, Deptford, when the murders were committed.

Mr Ryder said Sonnex's previous convictions showed he was “perfectly capable of thrusting a knife into another person's body”.

On May 13, 2002, Sonnex, then aged just 16, stabbed a man called Ersan Topcu three times in Evelyn Street, Deptford, the court heard.

And the court heard how months after that Sonnex had been “out and about terrorising people” in Surrey Quays and robbing them with an imitation gun.

Mr Ryder said one victim had been “terrified”.

Sonnex replied: “She must have been. Who wouldn't be if they had a gun to their head?”

The defendant said he had been high on crack cocaine at the time of these events.

For the two offences, Sonnex was jailed for eight years, and was released last February.

But the court was told that just two days after his release, Sonnex allegedly tied up and threatened his own foster sister and her boyfriend.

The defendant claimed this was a drug deal and that it was he and a friend who were threatened with a gun.

Sonnex said: “Deptford and New Cross is a criminal environment.

“I told my probation officers not to send me back there – they knew what the outcome was going to be.”

Sonnex, aged 23, of Etta Street, Deptford, and Farmer, aged 34, of no fixed address, deny murder, arson and false imprisonment.

Farmer denies burglary but Sonnex admits the charge.

The trial continues.