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 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.” Crime Italy Europe Steven Morris guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 29, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.