British blunder in slayings sparks lawsuit

LONDON, June 5 (UPI) -- Families of two French students tortured and murdered in a sadistic home invasion say they will sue the allegedly blundering British legal system.

Dano Sonnex, 23, and his accomplice Nigel Farmer, 34, were sentenced to life in prison Thursday for the murders a year ago of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez in the victims' London apartment. They were stabbed 244 times before their bodies were set afire in what police called a scene of "unimaginable horror."

Through a series of mistakes Sonnex was free at the time of the assaults when he probably should have been in jail because of a number of crimes, authorities said.

The victims' families said that they intended to prosecute the authorities over systematic failings by the probation service, courts and police.

Guy Bonomo, Laurent's father, said that the parents knew that their children would be alive today "if the British justice system had not failed us."

Justice Secretary Jack Straw apologized to the families for the blunders that left Sonnex on the streets of South London when he should have been back in custody for breaking the terms of his release from an earlier jail sentence for robbery.

Straw, who has met the families twice, said that Sonnex "could and should" have been in custody at the time of the killings. He said he took "full responsibility" for failings by the Probation Service.

David Scott, the chief probation officer in London, quit his post in February over the failings. He expressed his "utter regret."