Sabrina Kouider trial: Boyzone founder Mark Walton tells of 'turbulent' relationship with woman accused of nanny murder

Sabrina Kouider is accused of murdering her French nanny Sophie Lionnet
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A founding member of Boyzone today told the Old Bailey that his ex-girlfriend, who is accused of murdering a French nanny, would often “go crazy” .

Mark Walton, 42, said Sabrina Kouider, 35, who he dated between 2011 and 2013, would suddenly “flip” and shout at him in public. She is accused of murdering Sophie Lionnet, 21, last September after subjecting the nanny to weeks of abuse.

The Old Bailey has heard that Kouider had accused Mr Walton of being a paedophile and believed that Ms Lionnet had been secretly meeting him.

Kouider and her partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, allegedly interrogated the au pair for a month, accusing her of being “in league” with Mr Walton, before murdering her and burning her body on a bonfire at their home in Southfields.

Mr Walton, who co-founded Boyzone in the Nineties but left the pop group after about a year, is now a music mogul living in Los Angeles.

He told the court he met Kouider in a bank in Notting Hill in September 2011 and asked the manager who she was because she he thought she was “pretty”. He said he soon moved into her flat in Bayswater, adding: “I was in love, she was my life then.”

However, he said, “it was turbulent, probably the most turbulent relationship I’ve ever been in... she would flip, get very angry, very loud, and she wouldn’t care where we were.

"She would just go crazy over something trivial.” Asked who was more “controlling”, he said: “Sabrina.”

He said Kouider hired and fired several nannies, accusing them of stealing and being “interested” in him. “Some of them were friendly, and I’m a friendly guy. But it was nothing more than that,” he said.

Mr Walton told jurors he had been paying money to Kouider to cover the rental of the flat in Southfields where Ms Lionnet’s remains were found on September 20 last year, but did not actually know where it was. He said that he had “never, ever” heard of Ms Lionnet before he was contacted by police after her death.

Mr Walton also said Kouider had set up a fake Facebook profile, accusing him of being a paedophile. The jury has already been told the claim was false.

Kouider and Medouni, of Southfields, deny murder. The trial continues.

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