On June 29th 2008, two French research students, Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, were murdered in Sterling Gardens, New Cross in South East London, United Kingdom. The victims, who were apparently playing computer games when attacked, were bound and stabbed more than 240 times.

The victims were bound, gagged, and tortured over several hours, and stabbed 196 and 47 times, respectively. The bodies were discovered by firefighters in an apartment, rented by Laurent Bonomo, at Sterling Gardens, New Cross on June 29. Greenwich mortuary autopsy showed both died from wounds to the head, neck and chest before the fire took hold. A petrol-like accelerant was poured upon their bodies, apparently to destroy evidence.

Both victims were biochemistry students and in their third year of a masters degree at Polytech Clermont-Ferrand university in France, on a three-month DNA research project exchange programme at London's Imperial College. Bonomo was from Velaux, Bouches-du-Rhone, southern France; Ferez from Prouzel, Picardie, northern France.