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Danilo
RESTIVO
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Mutilation - Hair
fetishist
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: September 12, 1993 / November 12, 2001
Danilo Restivo (born April 1972) is an
Italian man serving a life sentence with a 40-year tariff in Britain
for the 12 November 2002 murder of Heather Barnett in Bournemouth,
England.
Investigators suspected Restivo had murdered
Barnett because of his involvement in the 12 September 1993
disappearance of Elisa Claps in Italy, but they were unable to charge
him because of lack of evidence.
Subsequent to the 2010 discovery of Claps's body,
Restivo was tried for the murder of Barnett, with evidence of
similarities in ritualistic placing of hair on the bodies of Claps and
Barnett being heard by the English court.
He was found guilty of murdering Barnett, and later
convicted in absentia of the murder of Claps by an Italian court.
Lawyers for Omar Benguit, convicted for the 12 July 2002 murder of a
Korean woman, Jong Ok-Shin, in Bournemouth, have suggested that
Restivo may have committed the crime for which Benguit was convicted.
The Court of Appeal is to hear Benguit's case.
Background
Restivo was born in Sicily. In 1993 he was living
with his parents in the Italian city of Potenza, he would attempt to
arrange dates with girls by claiming to have a present for them.
Restivo harassed those who rejected him with phone calls in which he
would play the soundtrack to Profondo Rosso, a Giallo film about a
serial killer. Claps, the 16-year old daughter of a tobacconist, felt
sorry for him. Despite misgivings, she agreed to see Restivo at the
15th-century Church of the Most Holy Trinity in the centre of the
city.
Disappearance of Elisa Claps
On Sunday 12 September 1993, Claps, accompainied by
a female friend, went to meet Restivo at the church, arriving at
approximately 11:30 AM just as mass finished. When she did not return
home, Claps' elder brother, Gildo, telephoned Restivo's family
residence and was told that Restivo was out of town and they had no
knowledge of Claps's whereabouts.
When Gildo went to the church, he found the priest
in charge, Domenico Sabia, had left, taking the only key giving access
to the upper story of the church building with him. Gildo reported the
disappearance of his sister to police, but he was at first told the
matter had "no urgency".
When a policeman questioned him, Restivo said Claps
had left the church while he had stayed to pray. He explained a cut on
his hand as the result of an accident. Later that day, he said, he had
gone to Napoli. The Restivo family declined the policeman's request
for clothes Restivo had been wearing on 12 September to be handed
over, and the officer was denied authorisation to search the Restivo
family home by his superiors. Sabia opposed a search of the church.
Restivo was known to police who believed him to
have been responsible for nine incidents in which women had their hair
clandestinely cut. He was also thought to have tied up two children
before cutting one with a knife. A magistrate refused to issue an
arrest warrant for Restivo in June 1994, but four months later he was
taken into custody. An Italian policeman who questioned Restivo
described him as "cunning" and "precise in his answers".
Conspiracy-theorising and false leads
Claps' disappearance was the subject of intense
media interest and speculation. Tobias Jones writes "The case
gradually became, for many, an obsession, one of the iconic Italian
mysteries that enabled people to engage in dietrologia, literally 'behindery'
or conspiracy-theorising. Claps' face – her long, dark hair, thick
glasses and carefree smile – haunted the nation."
An acquaintance of Claps said that she had been
abducted by criminals. Claps' diary had a page missing, tests
suggested that there were words written in Albanian. A connection to
Albania was thought by some to be the most promising line of inquiry.
Claps' elder brother, Gildo alleged the investigation into his
sister's disappearance had been hindered by deference to prominent
community figures. The investigation was taken away from the Potenza
authorities and moved 120 km away to Salerno.
Claps's friend suspected
A close friend of Claps, who had accompanied her on
the day of her disappearance, told investigators that she had last
seen Claps outside the church at 11:30 AM, when Claps had left to meet
Restivo in the church. She said Claps had told her she would be back
in half an hour. Prosecutors accused her of lying and suspected her of
involvement in the disappearance; they asserted that she had been seen
with Claps later in the day.
Investigation takes wrong track
The assumption that Claps had left the church moved
the focus of the investigation away from the church building and onto
other lines of inquiry; the church was not thoroughly searched.
Italian criminal procedure
The accused is presumed innocent, but the
prosecution can appeal against sentences. If found guilty the accused
is absolutely guaranteed an appeal to a trial of the second grade,
which is similar to a trial de novo where all evidence and witnesses
can be re-examined. With conviction at a trial of the second grade an
appeal to the Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) can only be made on
procedural grounds or on issues of the interpretation of law.
Trial of Restivo with Claps's friend
In 1996, Restivo was tried for giving false
information. He testified that he had met Claps in a curtained area
behind the altar before she left minutes later. He admitted he had
previously taken girls to a room on the first floor of the church. In
2010, the remains of Claps were found yards from that location.
Tried along with Restivo were an Albanian man and
Claps' close friend. Restivo alone was convicted, he was sentenced to
20 months imprisonment and lost an appeal. Because short sentences are
suspended in Italy, Restivo remained free and without restriction on
his movements. The prosecution appealed against the acquittal of
Claps' friend, at a second trial she was found guilty on a charge of
perjury and sentenced to 14 months imprisonment, the Italian supreme
court later overturned the conviction.
Exoneration of Claps' friend
When the body of Claps was discovered, it became
clear that her friend had been telling the truth. She testified via a
video link at Restivo's trial for murdering Barnett.
Murder of Heather Barnett
In May 2002 Restivo arrived in England, and moved
in with a Bournemouth woman. He lived across the street from Barnett,
a mother of two who worked from home as a seamstress. Restivo visited
Barnett's flat on 6 November 2002, ostensibly to discuss having
curtains made.
On 12 November 2002, Barnett was found by her
children, aged 11 and 14, when they came home from school. They waited
for police to arrive at the home of Restivo. She had been bludgeoned
to death with a hammer and her breasts, which had been severed, were
beside her head. A lock of hair, which was not Barnett's, had been
placed in her right hand and some of her own hair was under her left
hand. The time of death was estimated to be shortly after Barnett had
returned home after taking her children to school that morning.
Investigation
Restivo was immediately a person of interest for
detectives because he had been first on the scene, having been
returning home with his female companion when the alarm was raised by
Barnett's children. Police took him in for questioning, three days
later he was released without charge. At an early stage he had
produced a bus ticket timed stamped 8.44am to support his alibi of
having been on his way to a computer course at the time of the murder.
The detective heading the inquiry later said that
Restivo gave the impression of being "bumbling". Forensic
investigation showed the killer had left few traces at the crime
scene. Luminol tests showed a trail of bloody shoe-prints that ended
suddenly, this was thought to indicate the killer had changed his
shoes before leaving Barnett's house.
Although Barnett's son told police the day after
the murder that his mother's keys went missing after Restivo's visit
of 6 November, and he was found to have soaked the trainers he had
worn on 12 November in bleach, Restivo was not strongly suspected at
first because of his alibi.
In the light of Restivo's connection to Claps'
disappearance and suspicious behaviour[2] detectives regarded him as
chief suspect, but there was not sufficient evidence for a
prosecution. In March 2004 he was put under close surveillance using
electronic tracking and listening devices; police overheard Restivo
being spoken to by his parents and female companion as if he were a
child.
He was observed on repeated visits to a beauty spot
where he was covertly filmed as he apparently stalked lone women. On
12 May 2004 the surveillance team became alarmed, a uniformed patrol
was ordered to stop and search Restivo on a pretext. Although it was a
warm day he was wearing waterproof over-trousers. In his car police
found an identical change of clothing, filleting knife, scissors,
balaclava and gloves.
In June 2004 a schoolgirl identified Restivo as the
man who had cut her hair on a bus, in November 2006 he was rearrested
and his home searched. Police found a lock of hair. Trainers he had
worn on the day of the murder had traces of blood, but it could not be
identified. In 2008 new techniques revealed a bloodstained towel left
at the murder scene had a DNA match for Restivo, but he claimed to
have left it on the visit to the home of Barnett on 6 November. The
evidence was still judged insufficient for a prosecution.
Body of Elisa Claps discovered
Sabia died in 2008, he had denied ever being
acquainted with Restivo, but a photograph of Restivo's 18th birthday
party emerged that showed Sabia had been one of the guests. In March
2010 a body was found in the church, in a brick alcove beside the bell
tower. Forensic DNA analysis initially suggested the body was not that
of Claps, but on re-testing it was found to be her. Strands of Claps'
own hair had been cut from her head shortly after her death and placed
near her hands. Italian investigation found DNA and other evidence
indicating Restivo was the murderer of Claps.
Restivo charged
In a move that the prosecutor said was unrelated to
the Italian investigation, it was decided that the evidence against
Restivo was sufficient for a prosecution. Two months after the remains
of Claps were found, Restivo was charged with the murder of Barnett.
Trial and appeal
It was ruled that the English court could hear
evidence that Restivo had murdered Elisa Claps in Italy, and about the
similarities of that murder with the murder of Barnett. Italian
investigators testified to the English court that DNA recovered from
the clothes on the body of Claps matched Restivo and was consistent
with blood. In May 2011, Restivo was found guilty of murdering Heather
Barnett, the judge sentenced him to spend the rest of his life in
prison.
Appealing against the whole life term Restivo's
lawers argued the judge was wrong to take the Claps murder into
account when sentencing Restivo for the murder of Barnett, as Restivo
had not been convicted of it at that time. In November 2012 the Court
of Appeal ruled in favour of Restivo and altered his minimum sentence
to 40 years, but said it was 'highly improbable' he would ever be
released.
Related legal review
In 2011 the Criminal Cases Review Commission began
examining the conviction of Omar Benguit to determine if it should be
referred to the Court of Appeal. After juries at two previous trials
had failed to agree on a sentence, Benguit was found guilty in January
2005 on a charge of murdering Jong-Ok Shin, a 26-year old Korean woman
who had come to England to study. She was attacked yards from her
home, three blocks from where Restivo lived, in the early hours of 12
July 2002.
A criminologist who has researched the case
expressed the opinion that the likelihood of different killers with
similar long bladed knives comitting murders three streets apart
within four months is "very,very small". According to Benguit's
lawyers, security video of the street in the time-frame of the murder
shows that the testimony of the main prosecution witness in the case
is unreliable; while several lines of circumstantial evidence point to
Restivo. In December 2012 the Criminal Cases Review Commission
announced Benguit’s case is to be submitted to the Court of Appeal.
Further reading
Tobias Jones, Blood on the Altar: In Search of a
Serial Killer, Faber & Faber, 2012
Michael Litchfield, The Cutter, John Blake
Publishing Limited, 2011
Federica Sciarelli, Gildo Claps, Per Elisa: Il caso
Claps. 18 anni di depistaggi, silenzi e omissioni, Rizzoli, 2011
Pierangelo Maurizio, L'uomo che amava uccidendo. La
storia di Danilo Restivo, Koinè Nuove Edizioni, 2012
Wikipedia.org
Danilo Restivo to spend life in prison for
murder of 'inhuman depravity'
Judge tells killer with a fetish for cutting hair
from women that he will never be released
By Steven Morris - The Guardian
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Danilo Restivo will spend the rest of his life in
prison for the ritualistic killing of mother-of-two Heather Barnett
after a judge ruled that his crime was of such "inhuman depravity" he
should never be freed.
Restivo, who had a fetish for cutting locks of hair
from girls and women, killed seamstress Barnett at her flat in
Bournemouth before mutilating her body and placing a hank of someone
else's hair in her right hand and a clump of her own beneath her left.
Restivo, an Italian national, now faces extradition
over the killing of 16-year-old Elisa Claps in the loft of a church in
Potenza, southern Italy, in 1993. He left strands of her hair in her
hands and next to her body.
Restivo was found guilty in just five hours by a
jury at Winchester crown court of the murder of Barnett, 48, in 2002.
All 12 members of the jury chose to return to court
to hear Restivo's sentence. Some wept as they heard a victim impact
statement read on behalf of Barnett's daughter, Caitlin, aged 11 at
the time of the murder, who found the body when she came home from
school.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Burnett told Restivo
the murder was so serious that no minimum term would be appropriate.
"The seriousness of this offence is exceptionally
high... the depravity of the killing, the careful planning and
preparation, its sexual content and the previous killing of Elisa
Claps drive me to the conclusion that the alternative starting point
(for a minimum prison term) of 30 years would not be appropriate.
"I can find no mitigation in this case, none have
been advanced on your behalf. There is, in my judgment, no minimum
period which could be properly set – you will never be released from
prison."
The judge said the crime was of "inhuman
depravity", made worse by the fact that Restivo would have known his
victim's children would find her body.
He said: "You knew an 11-year-old girl and a
14-year-old boy would find their mother butchered on the bathroom
floor. This feature of the case will haunt those who sat through it.
"Why you picked Heather Barnett as your victim I do
not know but it's clear that you did so to satisfy a sadistic, sexual
appetite. The evidence in this case shows you are a cold, depraved,
calculated killer."
Restivo is now subject to a European arrest warrant
and is expected to be extradited to Italy – where the case has
attracted huge interest – to stand trial for the murder of Claps.
Outside court Heather Barnett's brother, IT teacher
Ben Barnett, spoke of his relief at seeing Restivo jailed for lifeand
revealed the killer attended his sister's funeral.
Undercover police observed mourners at the funeral
and wake, where Restivo may even have consoled Heather's children
Terry, then 14, and Caitlin.
Detectives had told the grieving family they were
sure Restivo would show up at the service in February 2003 because he
would get a thrill from it.
Mr Barnett said: "Restivo and his wife, Fiamma,
came to Heather's funeral and the wake. They were neighbours and at
that stage he was one suspect of about 10 or so.
"The police approached us before the funeral and
asked if they could attend to see who else turned up. They thought the
murderer might come and get some gratification from it.
"He would have spoken to the children, because they
knew him as a neighbour. He is a callous and calculating person. "He
left Heather for her children to find and made sure he was the person
who tried to comfort them. I will never understand that."
Mr Barnett added: "I feel relieved; relieved that
we don't have to go through this anymore and that the police
suspicions were right all along.
"Our biggest fear was always that this might happen
to somebody else and the evidence shows that it quite realistically
could have done. I think he would have killed again.
"Restivo has already had eight years of freedom
that my sister never had. I've thought about the death penalty, but I
think it's too good for him. It seems like the easy way out. I think
he's going to have a miserable rest of his life in prison.
Mr Barnett also criticised the Italian police
investigation and said that, if Claps's body had been found earlier,
Heather would still be alive.
He said: "The thing I find most confusing is that
they should have found Elisa's body in the place where she was
suspected to have been murdered. All the evidence points to the fact
she had been there from that day and I don't know how the police could
have missed it. Somebody has a lot of questions to answer.
"If the investigation had been carried out properly
and they proved Restivo murdered Elisa, then my sister would still be
alive today."
Danilo Restivo convicted of murder and
mutilation of neighbour after nine years
Italian faces extradition to homeland over 1993
death of teenager whose remains were found in Potenza church
By Steven Morris - The Guardian
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
A man with a fetish for surreptitiously cutting
locks of hair from girls and women will be jailed for life on Thursday
for the ritualistic murder of his neighbour and is facing extradition
over the killing of a teenager in Italy.
Danilo Restivo was convicted of murdering Heather
Barnett at her Bournemouth flat in 2002 and mutilating her body before
placing a hank of someone else's hair in her right hand and a clump of
her own beneath her left.
Restivo, an Italian national, has also been accused
of killing 16-year-old Elisa Claps in the loft of a church in Potenza,
southern Italy, in 1993 and leaving cut strands of her own hair in her
hands and next to her body, which was not discovered until last year.
As well as being questioned over the killing of
Claps, Restivo may also eventually be investigated over other murders
in southern France and Spain. In the UK, the Criminal Cases Review
Commission has been watching the seven-week trial amid claims that he
might also be behind the killing of a student, Jong-Ok Shin, in
Bournemouth four months before Barnett was murdered.
Outside court on Wednesday, Barnett's relatives
expressed relief that nine years after her death, Restivo, 39, had
been brought to justice. But they were angry at what they see as
failings in the Italian police investigation into the murder of Claps,
pointing out that if he had been caught then he could not have killed
Barnett.
Claps's body was found in the church where she had
last been seen and there are conspiracy theories in Italy that people
in Potenza knew the body was hidden there. There have also been
rumours about the role of the mafia and the church.
It has been a long ordeal for Barnett's family,
some of whom criticised British police on Wednesday for not being
aggressive enough in the early stages of their inquiries.
The murder on 12 November 2002 of Barnett, a mother
of two who worked as a seamstress from her home in Dorset, could
hardly have been more brutal and disturbing. Barnett, 48, was battered
around the head with a hammer-like object and dragged into her
bathroom. Her throat was cut, she was partially stripped and her
breasts were sliced off. The killer left a clump of another woman's
hair in Barnett's right hand and some of her own beneath her left.
Her children, Terry, then 14, and Caitlin, 11,
found their mother's body on their return from school. Terry told how
his sister "went absolutely ballistic" as she opened the bathroom
door. When he peered in he was horrified. "I saw her lying on her
back. I saw blood absolutely everywhere and I thought 'Oh no.'"
When officers arrived at the scene Restivo was
comforting Terry and both children were taken into his home while
forensic scientists began work.
Detective Superintendent Mark Cooper, the senior
investigating officer, said police were instantly suspicious of
Restivo. "He was in the inquiry right from the start. From day one he
was on our list," said Cooper. Four days after the murder, police
visited Restivo's house and a detective sergeant asked what shoes he
had been wearing on the day of the killing as police believed the
killer's footwear could have been contaminated with blood.
Restivo showed them a pair of trainers lying in the
bath, which smelled of bleach. They had been dirty, Restivo said.
Police began to dig into Restivo's background. He
was born in Sicily but moved to Potenza in southern Italy when his
father was hired to set up a prestigious library there.
The link to Claps propelled Restivo from person of
interest to prime suspect. As a 21-year-old Restivo fell for Claps but
she rejected him. On 12 September 1993 he met her at the Church of the
Most Holy Trinity in Potenza. And then she vanished. In 1995 he was
convicted in Italy of giving false information about an injury to his
hand on the day Claps vanished.
Police and the Italian media suspected he had
killed her but no body was found by that stage and there was no proof.
In May 2002 Restivo moved to Bournemouth having met
a woman on the internet. Six months later Barnett, who lived opposite
him, was dead.
Cooper said that by early 2003 Restivo had become
the "sole focus" of the investigation. Police did not have the
evidence to charge him and instead began intense surveillance. They
were soon alarmed by his behaviour.
In May 2004 police watched Restivo at secluded
locations observing or following women. On one occasion he was stopped
by officers who found he had a large knife, a balaclava and two pairs
of scissors. "He was an immediate and real danger to women," said
Cooper.
Police continued to watch Restivo, sometimes 24
hours a day. Meanwhile they were following up inquiries into the hair
left in Barnett's hand.
Detectives discovered that numerous women in
Potenza and Bournemouth had complained of having hair snipped while on
buses or, on one occasion, sitting in the dark of a cinema. There were
15 reports from women in the UK and nine in Italy.
Restivo would claim at his eventual trial that he
started cutting hair at around age 15 for a bet. "I started liking it
and I kept doing it. The problem was that I liked touching the hair
and also smelling it. It was not a sexual attraction," he claimed.
In November 2006 Restivo was arrested and his home
searched. Police found a lock of hair tied with green cotton – which
Restivo said must have been planted.
In 2008 scientists finally made a link between DNA
material found on a green towel recovered from Barnett's flat and
Restivo. Still it was not judged strong enough to charge him.
Then in March 2010 the body of Elisa Claps was
found a few metres from where she had met Restivo 17 years previously.
Her remains had been hidden in the loft of the church beneath a pile
of old tiles.
She had been stabbed and, most significantly,
strands of her own hair cut from her head shortly after her death had
been placed in each hand and locks of hair had been placed near her
body.
Restivo was charged with Barnett's murder two
months later. He showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered.
Barnett's daughter, Caitlin, sobbed. Outside court, Barnett's sister,
Denise Le Voir, said the family feared Restivo, who continued to live
in the same flat in Bournemouth after the killing, would return to
murder Caitlin.
She criticised the Italian inquiry saying: "Elisa
was found in the church where she had last been seen and I cannot
understand why that church wasn't thoroughly searched top to bottom
sooner. It would appear someone was covering up."
How Danilo Restivo was caught
Police quickly suspected him as Heather Barnett's
killer but it took 10 years, close surveillance and a lock of hair to
catch him
Theguardian.com
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Within hours of the bloody, ritualistic murder of
Heather Barnett detectives began to investigate her neighbour,
Italian-born Danilo Restivo.
It has taken almost a decade of scientific tests,
many weeks of intense surveillance and the discovery of another
woman's body 1,000 miles away to finally bring Restivo to justice.
The murder on 12 November 2002 of Barnett, a mother
of two who worked from her home in Bournemouth, Dorset, as a
seamstress, could hardly have been more brutal and disturbing.
Barnett, 48, was battered to death around the head
with a hammer-like object and dragged into her bathroom. Her throat
was cut, she was partially stripped and her breasts were sliced off.
The killer left a clump of another woman's hair in Barnett's right
hand and some of her own beneath her left.
Her children, Terry, then 14, and Caitlin, 11,
found their mother's body when they returned from school. Terry told
how his sister "went absolutely ballistic" as she opened the bathroom
door. When he peered in he was horrified. "I saw her lying on her back
with blood. I saw blood absolutely everywhere and I thought 'Oh no.'"
The police's first contact with Restivo came just a
few minutes later – when officers arrived at the scene he was
comforting Terry and both children were taken into Restivo's home
while forensic scientists got to work on the murder scene.
Detective Superintendent Mark Cooper, the senior
investigating officer, said police were instantly suspicious of
Restivo. "He was in the inquiry right from the start. From day one he
was on our list," said Cooper. "He was one of the first people on the
scene and he comforted the children."
Four days after the murder police visited Restivo's
house as part of their house-to-house inquiries. A detective sergeant
asked Restivo what shoes he had been wearing on the day of the killing
because police believed the killer's footwear could have been
contaminated with blood.
Restivo showed the officers a pair of trainers
lying in the bathtub. They smelled of bleach and Restivo claimed he
had soaked them because they had been dirty. The shoes were taken away
for examination.
Police began to dig into Restivo's background. He
was born in Sicily but moved to Potenza in southern Italy when his
father was hired to set up a library there.
It was Restivo's link to a 16-year-old girl called
Elisa Claps that propelled him from person of interest to prime
suspect.
As a 21-year-old Restivo fell for Claps but she
rejected him. On 12 September 1993 he met her at the church of the
Most Holy Trinity in Potenza. And then she vanished.
In 1995 he was convicted in Italy of giving false
information about an injury to his hand on the day Claps vanished.
Police and the Italian media suspected he had killed her but no body
was found and there was no proof of Restivo's guilt.
In May 2002 Restivo started a new life away from
his homeland when he moved to Bournemouth having met a woman on the
internet. Six months later Barnett was dead.
Cooper said that within a few months – early 2003 –
Restivo had become the "sole focus" of the investigation. Police did
not have the evidence to charge him and instead began carrying out
intense surveillance to try to secure that evidence. They were soon
alarmed by his behaviour.
In May 2004 police watched Restivo at secluded
locations observing or following women. On one occasion he was stopped
by officers who found in his bag a large knife and a packet of
tissues. In the boot of his car there was a hooded jacket with a
balaclava and gloves in the pockets. Two pairs of scissors were in the
driver's door pocket.
"We considered Restivo was a real risk to the
public and we did everything necessary to make sure that he was being
watched and observed. He was an immediate and real danger to women,"
said Cooper. Police continued to watch Restivo, sometimes 24 hours a
day.
In June 2004 Restivo was arrested and questioned
about a number of matters, including the trainers, but he insisted he
had nothing to do with Barnett's death.
Meanwhile police were following up the hair left in
Barnett's hand. Detectives discovered that women in Potenza and
Bournemouth had complained of having hair snipped as they travelled on
buses or, on one occasion, while sitting in the dark of a cinema.
There were 15 reports from women in the UK and nine in Italy.
At an identity parade in 2004 a young woman called
Holly Stroud picked out Restivo as the man who had cut her hair while
she travelled to school the year before. Still it was not enough and
he was freed.
In November 2006 Restivo was rearrested and his
home searched. Police found a lock of hair tied with green cotton.
Restivo said the hair must have been planted.
Scientists continued to re-examine material
recovered from the scene of Barnett's murder. Experts had found traces
of blood on Restivo's trainers but it had not been possible to extract
a DNA sample.
In 2008 scientists finally made a link between DNA
material found on a green towel recovered from Barnett's flat and
Restivo. To the frustration of detectives it was not judged strong
enough to charge him.
In March 2010 the body of Elisa Claps was found, a
few metres from where she had met Restivo 17 years previously. Her
remains had been hidden in the loft of the church of the Most Holy
Trinity beneath a pile of old tiles.
Like Barnett, Claps had suffered brutal chest
wounds probably inflicted with a knife. Most significantly, strands of
her own hair cut from her head shortly after her death had been placed
in each hand and locks of hair had been placed near her body. Restivo
was charged with Barnett's murder two months later.
His conviction after a seven-week trial at
Winchester crown court is not the end of criminal proceedings against
him.
The Italian authorities want him extradited to face
trial for the murder of Elisa Claps. If sent back, he will be returned
to the UK at the end of those proceedings to serve out his sentence in
Britain.
Lawyers for a man convicted of murdering a student
three streets away from Restivo's home four months before Barnett was
killed are asking the Criminal Case Review Commission to look at
whether Restivo was the real killer.
Retired detective superintendent Phil James, who
was involved in the Barnett investigation in the early days, said it
was one of the "most traumatic" crimes he was involved in.
"It's the sort of thing you see in The Godfather,"
he said. "This result has been a long time coming and it's an absolute
relief to know that this man will now be off the streets."
Timeline: Danilo Restivo trial
A chronology of events in the Heather Barnett
murder case
By Steven Morris - Theguardian.com
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
August 1954 Heather Barnett born. Grew up in
Dorset. Had two children, Terry, born 1987, and Caitlin, born in 1991.
April 1972 Danilo Restivo born in Sicily.
Family moved to Sardinia and then to Potenza in southern Italy.
1992 Angela Campochiaro, then 23, has a 10cm
lock of hair cut from her head in a cinema in Potenza, one of nine
women in Italy who complain of being targeted in this way.
12 September 1993 Elisa Claps, 16, goes
missing after meeting Restivo at the church of the Most Holy Trinity
in Potenza.
March 1995 Restivo convicted in Italy of
giving false information to prosecutor over an injury to his hand
sustained on the day Claps disappeared. Her body remains missing.
May 2002 Restivo arrives in Bournemouth to
live with a woman he met on the internet. Moves into house opposite
Barnett's home.
12 November 2002 Heather Barnett is
murdered.
2002-2004 Restivo cuts the hair of 15 women
and girls in the Bournemouth area.
17 November 2002 Police seize the trainers
Restivo was wearing on the day Barnett was murdered. He had cleaned
them with bleach.
Early 2003 Restivo becomes chief suspect but
police cannot find the evidence to prove his guilt.
March 2004 Police put Restivo under
surveillance.
May 2004 Restivo stopped at beauty spot
wearing waterproof clothing on a dry warm day. Police find large
fillet knife, tissues, balaclava, gloves and two pairs of scissors.
June 2004 Restivo interviewed by police on a
number of matters, including trainers. Schoolgirl identifies Restivo
at an ID parade as the man who snipped her hair on a bus.
November 2006 Restivo is interviewed again
and his home searched. A lock of hair tied with green cotton is found
in bag. Restivo claims hair had been planted.
2008 Police re-examine original forensic
tapings of green towel found at Heather Barnett murder scene. DNA
sample found and linked to Restivo, but it is still not strong enough
to charge him.
March 2010 Elisa Claps' body is found
beneath a pile of tiles in a loft in the Most Holy Trinity church in
Potenza.
May 2010 Restivo charged with Heather
Barnett's murder.
June 2011 Restivo convicted of Heather
Barnett's murder and faces extradition to Italy to face trial for the
murder of Elisa Claps.