From The Daily Mail:

Minister's niece jailed for 15 years for knifing lover to death
after drinking spree

The niece of defence minister Quentin Davies was jailed for 15
years yesterday for murdering a man she picked up in a pub for
sex.

Jessica Davies, 30, was found guilty of repeatedly stabbing
Olivier Mugnier in her Paris flat after a drinking spree which left
her four times over the drinkdrive limit.

The sentence exceeded the 12 years demanded by the
prosecution for Davies.

She will be under judicial supervision for ten years following her release after prosecutors said she was 'likely to reoffend'.

Davies, a former model, has described herself as being 'extremely close' to her multi-millionaire uncle to whom she poured out her troubles in letters while she was on remand. She showed no emotion as a judge at Versailles Criminal Court near Paris read out the verdict.

During her two-day trial witnesses had painted a dark picture of a privileged young woman whose life spiralled out of control.

Heavy drinking, rampant drug taking and easy sex monopolised Davies's days and nights right up to the moment when she slashed unemployed graduate Mr Mugnier's throat with a kitchen knife in a fit of frustration and anger after they had failed to have sex.

Accusing Davies, the daughter of a wealthy banker, of being a spoiled heiress who had thrown away a 'golden youth', prosecutors said she had shown no remorse for her crime and that 24-year-old Mr Mugnier had been 'eliminated in two seconds'.

Prosecutor Myriam Quemener said she 'deplored' Davies's performance in court as she tried to claim diminished responsibility for the attack and said all memory of it had disappeared into a 'black hole'.

Mrs Quemener said Davies had 'zapped details which she wanted to get rid of'.

Davies was covered in blood when detectives found her cradling the naked body of Mr Mugnier in her one-bedroom flat in the prosperous suburb of St Germain- en-Laye, where she was brought up, on November 11, 2007.

She initially confessed to the crime, saying: 'I did it. I can't tell you why, but I did it. I am a monster.'

The six-inch kitchen knife that killed Mr Mugnier had been used in a suicide attempt by Davies three months earlier.

Davies said that before the killing she had consumed numerous pints of beer and high-alcohol shots at Sullivans, an Irish pub in St Germain-en-Laye and could recall inviting Mr Mugnier - whose nickname was Funtime - to her home.

'The next thing I can remember is telephoning the emergencyservices,' she said.

Davies was charged with voluntary homicide without premeditation which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Police believe the crime may have been inspired by the drug and alcohol-fuelled killing of Briton Meredith Kercher in Italy a few days earlier.

Davies's parents are divorced and her French mother, Monique, has described her daughter as 'an adolescent disturbed by family difficulties' who grew into a woman 'unable to face day-to-day life'.

Mrs Quemener said Davies was devastated when her parents separated and her British father Richard went to live in Italy with his mistress.

Psychologically fragile, she apparently felt abandoned by those closest to her.

Davies, who was born in London, dreamed of being a fashion model and her descent into drug and alcohol abuse gathered pace around seven years ago when she was told she would not make it on the catwalk.

Quentin Davies, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour in 2007, has not commented on his niece's case.