THE grief-stricken father of murdered French student Laurent Bonomo has lashed out after a judge showed mercy to his son's "sadistic" killers.
Guy Bonomo said Dano Sonnex and Nigel Farmer, who stabbed his son and fellow student Gabriel Ferez a total of 244 times, were "animals" who should never be let out.
Olivier Ferez said an apology from Justice Secretary Jack Straw "will not suffice"
and the matter was in the hands of his lawyers.
The victims, both 23, died in an "orgy of bloodletting" after being tied up by the drug-fuelled killers and tortured for nearly three hours.
Relatives were horrified to learn that convicted knife thug Sonnex was only free to kill because of a catastrophic series of errors in the justice system.
They were left bewildered when Mr Justice Saunders jailed them yesterday for life but said they should one day be eligible for release as they were too young to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Guy Bonomo, 45, who had urged the judge to rule that they should never be freed, reacted angrily to the decision, describing the men as "two animals".
He said: "We were hoping for a more severe sentence. I think these people should never get out, they should not get out."
Mr Justice Saunders said although Sonnex and Farmer had killed for pleasure, it would be a "terrible punishment" to give them whole-life tariffs.
Sonnex, 23, swaggered from the dock, winking at his family and pretending to whistle after the judge said his eventual release should be considered "as a matter of mercy" after he has served 40 years of his life sentence. Farmer, 34, will be eligible for parole after 35 years of his life term.
The judge said: "When you are old and in poor health the parole board can, if they think it right and safe, release you on licence – but it may be that you will never be released."
Justice Secretary Jack Straw has already apologised to the families after it emerged Sonnex should have been recalled to prison before the murders.
He was out on licence after serving time for a violent offence but had gone straight back to his life of crime. Yet mistakes by the probation service led to a delay in issuing a recall notice, which was then only acted on after 16 days by police. Officers did not go to arrest him until hours after the students were killed on 29 June last year.
Mr Bonomo's mother Lydie said if it were not for these mistakes her son would still be alive today.
David Scott, head of the London probation service, has resigned, saying the organisation was "partly to blame" for what happened.
A sergeant has been disciplined after an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation found "confusion, poor communication and weak procedures" meant police failed to protect the students from the "terrible threat" posed by Sonnex.
The two victims had been woken in the night and tied up after Sonnex and Farmer climbed through an open window of Mr Bonomo's flat in New Cross, south London, in June last year. They stole games consoles, mobile phones and bank cards.
Fuelled by drink and drugs, the robbers egged each other on to an "inhuman" attack of "brutal and sustained ferocity", the Old Bailey heard.
The key mistakes• While Sonnex was being held at a young offenders institution in May 2004, he admitted to a doctor that he "could kill" in the future. This was never shared with other authorities.
• In August 2006 his risk of reoffending on release was assessed as very high.
• Within two days of being released, Sonnex tied up a pregnant woman and her partner, threatened them and demanded money.
• In April last year he was charged with handling stolen goods and remanded in custody.
But on May 16 magistrates freed him on unconditional bail.
• Sonnex should have been returned to prison for breaching the terms of his licence by committing a criminal offence. But it took 33 working days to process his recall notice.
