🚨 SH0CKING UPDATE: C0NVICTED ABU-SER WAS WEARING AN ANKLE TAG WHEN HE ALLEGEDLY MURD3RED A TIKTOK STAR… THEN DUMPED HER B0DY IN A VINEYARD 600 MILES FROM HOME
A DOMESTIC abuser was wearing an electronic monitoring tag when he allegedly murdered a TikTok star 600 miles from his home city, detectives say.
The suspect, 32, was arrested and charged over Sonia Bellina’s violent death in France after police used the ankle tag to track him down.
Sonia Bellina, 29, ws found dead in a vineyard in FranceCredit: Jam Press/@soniiabelliina
It comes after the battered and partially burnt body of influencer Sonia, 29, was found in a remote vineyard close to southern Nimes on August 12.
He faces life in prison for allegedly luring her to the isolated area before violently killing her and trying to burn her corpse.
The anti-proximity monitor is a GPS-enabled tracking device worn by high-risk offenders to enforce restraining orders.
An investigating source told The Sun: “Detectives used it to trace the alleged killer in the days after Sonia’s death.
“The geographical data is part of the evidence which led to his arrest.”
DNA belonging to the alleged killer was also found on Sonia’s defiled body, and his phone records show he was regularly speaking to Sonia, before meeting her twice.
The Sun previously revealed how Sonia – who was days away from celebrating her 30th birthday – had told family she was going to “end a toxic relationship” hours before she was killed.
It has also emerged that Sonia started working as an escort this year – something that is perfectly legal – and had met her attacker through an online agency.
Cécile Gensac, the Nimes prosecutor who is leading the investigation, confirmed the suspect, who was charged on Friday, was Sonia’s “last contact”.
She said he met her “in the context of an appointment for escort services on the night of the incident”.
Sonia’s lifeless body was discovered by a farm worker on August 12, poorly concealed between two rows of vines in the town of Saint-Gilles.
While in custody, the suspect – who has convictions for domestic abuse an dother violent crimes – has admitted to “having had a relationship with the victim on the night of the incident and the day before”.
He refused, however, to answer any other questions from investigators, Ms Gensac said.
The defendant was brought before an investigating magistrate on Friday afternoon and remanded in custody.
Sonia was reported missing on August 10 and found by a farmer two days laterCredit: soniiabelliina/ Instagram
The influencer told family she was going to ‘end a toxic relationship’Credit: soniiabelliina/ Instagram
A second man was arrested last week as part of the investigation, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing and released.
One family member has told detectives that Sonia set off in the early hours of the morning of August 10 “to end a toxic relationship” with an unidentified man.
An investigating source said: “She left without a bag, saying she would be back within a few hours.
“Sonia has only recently met the man, and nobody else in her circle knew him. He was certainly a mystery man.”
The enquiry into Sonia’s death is currently focused on the theory that a man she knew arranged to meet her, before driving her to the place where she was killed.
There was a five-hour window from the moment Sonia left her family apartment in Nimes and the presumed time of death.
“This has been calculated at shortly after her phone being switched off,” the insider added.
“Her phone was later found thrown away by the side of the road.”
Sonia was born and brought up in Nimes, where she trained to be a beauty therapist, specialising in eyelash extensions.
Beyond her professional work, she was a hugely popular online influencer, with more than 250,000 followers on TikTok, as well as on other mass audience platforms, such as Instagram and Snapchat.
Her regular performances included lip-synching to old romantic movies, and also pretending to seduce her fans.
Prostitution is legal in France, despite women involved often becoming the victims of a range of crimes, ranging from murder and rape, to other forms of abuse.
A study by French health monitoring organisation Inserm published last November revealed that 80 per cent of women involved in prostitution were subjected to violence, and 70 per cent to forced sexual acts.
Other enquiry sources said Sonia had been spending a lot of time in Paris, which is some 550 miles from her home city of Nimes.
Pictures posted on her social media sites show her in cafés, restaurants and shops identified as being in the French capital.
All of Sonia’s social media accounts have now been deleted.
She did not have any criminal convictions, but had been a victim of assault and theft in the past, enquiry sources confirmed.
Mourad Battikh, the barrister representing the Bellina family, said he was preparing a legal complaint against people who had aimed ‘online insults’ against Sonia’s memory.
Her alleged killer will remain in custody until a murder trial is held later this year.
SOURCE: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/40137178/suspect-sonia-bellina-tiktok-france-murder/