[1] Investigators' suspicions that Restivo had murdered Barnett were raised because of his alleged involvement in the 1993 disappearance of Elisa Claps in Potenza, Italy, but he was not charged due to insufficient evidence.
[13] On discovering that he had brought her a gift for passing her retakes, Claps felt sorry for Restivo, agreeing to meet him at the 15th-century Chiesa della Santissima Trinità in the centre of the city the following day.
[3][18] On 21 September, when providing a further statement to the office of the public prosecutor, Restivo claimed that Claps had left the church and prior to leaving, told him that she was 'supposed to be at her family's countryside home by 12 noon.
Claps' face—her long, dark hair, thick glasses and carefree smile—haunted the nation.In June 1994, a magistrate refused to issue an arrest warrant for Restivo for giving false information, but four months later he was taken into custody.
[citation needed] The prosecution appealed the acquittal of Claps' friend, and 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.
I had a spare door key for Terry out on a table and I think Dan must have picked it up inadvertently as I've turned the place upside down and can't find it anywhere…On the morning of 12 November 2002, Barnett had awoken at 05:00 GMT, as the family cat had vomited in the bedroom she shared with her daughter.
However, the time of death was estimated to be shortly after Barnett had returned home after taking her children to school that morning from the condition of the blood at the scene, as well as other factors, such as four phone calls to the house, between 10:56 and 16:16 that were not answered.
[20][7] Dr Anscombe concluded that Barnett had died as a result of head injuries received by a weapon of 'high input energy', most likely therefore 'some form of hammer', with the attack not lasting anymore than a few minutes.
[45][12] A notice in the Bournemouth Daily Echo read how Barnett had tragically died, aged 48-years-old, stating she was: "A dearly loved mum and sister, will be so sadly missed by all her family and many friends.
Police utilised a one-way mirror in the back of a van to observe Restivo, watching as he had parked his white Metro car at the dead end of Pig Shoot Lane, putting on and taking off gloves and wearing his hood tight around his face.
This followed a legal ruling that police have a 'duty of care' to issue alerts, after several people were killed, including Ali Osman, who was murdered by Paul Paget-Lewis, a teacher at his son's school, who was suffering from psychotic tendencies.
[52][20] This included Holly Stroud, who was on her way to college, studying A-Levels, who, in June 2004, identified Restivo as the man who had cut her hair on a bus on 13 March 2003, after being asked to look at a number of photographs by police.
They liaised with Dr Stuart Black at Reading University, who was an expert in forensic analysis of human remains, to attempt to identify who the hair that was placed in one of Barnett's hands, belonged to.
[58] An officer searching his address, DC Michael Davies, located a lock of brown hair, at the bottom of a chest of drawers in a plastic bag that also contained photographs.
[12] On 12 November 2009, the seventh anniversary of Barnett's death, police renewed their appeal for information, particularly keen to identify a man on CCTV in Charminster Road on the day of the murder.
[12] Professor Introna suspected there was a sexual element to the attack due to the ripping of Claps' underwear, her trousers being lowered and the particular locations of haemorrhages in the upper thigh and breast area.
[12] Professor of forensic medicine at the University of Milan, Cristina Cattaneo, was able to reconstitute and rehydrate Claps' hands with distilled water, which showed a number of defence wounds, which she said had been caused by 'the passage of a blade'.
[24][8] Later in the morning, DSI Cooper gave a statement to the media on the steps of Bournemouth police station, stating that a '38-year-old local man had been arrested in connection with the Heather Barnett murder inquiry' and that a 'full forensic examination of the property in Chatsworth Road would be taking place' that day.
And we're waiting for him in Italy because we're hoping, as we have for eighteen years, that he'll be tried and sentenced for Elisa's murder.The doctor who put a stitch into Restivo's hand in September 1993 also gave evidence, along with officers from the Italian police, who had been involved with the Claps case at the time.
[7] As De Cillis had been tried for perjury before (in the 1990s, along with Restivo), the defence focused on this, reading a passage from her earlier evidence, where she stated to an Italian court at trial in 1995 that she considered lying about her whereabout to her parents.
"[35] Prior to Restivo's defence counsel opening their case, David Jeremy QC was heard to tell a young member of his team: 'You will never see a day like this in court again'.
[79][81] Restivo stated that he could not give any explanation as to why his DNA was on a pullover close to a stab wound on Claps' back:[29] MB: In the course of the struggle she cut her own hand deeply, didn't she, by grasping the knife you were using?
Restivo stated: 'I have never talked to women', where he also appeared to provide a rambling, unrelated answer to a question: MB: You're seen [on police surveillance videos] removing your clothing, taking off over-trousers and changing trainers.
He had a sudden fascination with the architecture of concrete steps…the explanation is nonsense from beginning to end.Bowes continued, talking about the lack of blood there was at Barnett's house:[7] [It's] a bit like Sherlock Holmes with the dog that didn't bark.
The reason every piece of evidence points to him is because it was him.David Jeremy QC, provided the following speech for the closure of the defence case:[7] I have asked myself the question – 'what am I going to tell the jury' repeatedly in recent days.
Caitlin stated that Restivo had 'dragged [Barnett] into the bathroom and shut the door and it was a process of elimination that this would be the last room [her and her brother] would get to', adding it was 'very cruel to calculate her children would find her'.
We are grateful to the many forensic scientists who have helped to solve the case, including all the backroom staff, whose careful work on thousands of tests were represented by the expert who gave evidence in court.
The trial was carried out in Restivo's absence, due to extradition proceedings from a previously issued European Arrest Warrant halting, after he appealed his conviction of Barnett's murder.
[92] In April 2014, Restivo appeared at a special immigration court in Bradford, West Yorkshire, after then Home Secretary Theresa May issued an order for him to be deported to Italy.
[97] After juries at two previous trials had failed to agree on a verdict, 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.