AN alleged killer says his children being threatened with violence prompted him to burn down the flat where two French students were murdered, the Old Bailey heard today (May 13).

Nigel Farmer is accused, along with Dano Sonnex, of murdering Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez in New Cross on June 29 last year.

Farmer claimed in court today that after the murders Sonnex sent out his younger brother George to sell two PSPs stolen from the house.

He also claimed Sonnex's father started a bonfire in their back garden in Etta Street, Deptford, burning both Sonnex's clothes and older brother Bernie's.

Farmer, who has said he was at the Etta Street house at the time of the murders, claimed Bernie Sonnex asked him to go and set fire to the Sterling Gardens flat.

But when Farmer refused, Bernie Sonnex allegedly said: “You've seen how much blood Dano had on him this morning.

“If you don't do what you're told, tomorrow morning that could be your kids' blood all over him.”

Farmer added: “Dano then said he'd cut my kids' legs off below the knees.”

The defendant said he then had a panic attack and was threatened during the day until he agreed to set fire to the Sterling Gardens bedsit.

Farmer went to the flat at around 10pm on June 29 and sprinkled petrol around it.

He ignited the petrol with a match and was “engulfed in a fireball” and “thrown against a communal hallway wall”.

After he got back to Etta Street “screaming in pain”, he told Dano Sonnex: “I've been burned.”

Farmer said Sonnex “basically didn't care” and told him to get a taxi to Bernie Sonnex's girlfriend's house in Streatham.

The trial has previously heard that once at the Streatham flat Farmer allegedly told Fay Culyer, Bernie's girlfriend, about his role in the murders.

But he told the court today: “Nothing of the sort happened.”

Farmer claimed Bernie Sonnex said “if I ever talked I wouldn't last long.”

The defendant spent the following days staying with friends before he handed himself in at Lewisham police station on July 7.

Two women have claimed that while Farmer was there he told them he had murdered two people in New Cross.

But Farmer told the court: “I said something along those lines but I didn't make an admission.”

Farmer claimed he was “annoyed” because the police did not seem to be taking him seriously.

The defendant also said he was scared of Bernie Sonnex because of stories he had been told.

Farmer claims Bernie had talked about once having shot a DJ at the White Hart pub five times in the head with a “gas gun” because he would not play a Bob Marley record.

He claimed people had been too scared to give evidence and Bernie had seemed “proud” of this.

On another occasion, talking about a friend of Farmer's, Bernie had allegedly said: “You know I've killed three people already. I'll make him the fourth.”

And Farmer said Bernie Sonnex had been to prison for “demanding large sums of money with menaces from landlords in the New Cross area.”

He also said the older Sonnex brother had put a shotgun in someone's mouth.

Farmer said: “He told him he was going to blow his head off and put him in the giant freezer he had at the back of his house.”

Farmer's defence counsel John Ryder asked: “Why on earth did you remain associated with this family or this man?”

Farmer replied: “They were just polite and made me feel welcome and gave me a roof over my head basically.”

Dano 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