Man with fetish for cutting locks of hair from women faces extradition over earlier killing of teenager in Italy

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

A man with a fetish for surreptitiously cutting locks of hair from girls and women has been found guilty of murdering a British seamstress and now faces extradition over the killing of a teenager in Italy.

Danilo Restivo was convicted of killing his neighbour, Heather Barnett, at her Bournemouth flat 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 showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered after five hours of deliberation.

Barnett's daughter, Caitlin, who together with her brother Terry found their mother's body when they returned from school, sobbed quietly as the guilty verdict was returned.

Outside court, Barnett's sister, Denise, paid tribute to Heather as a feisty, hard-working woman and a loving mother. She said she would have been devastated at the way Restivo "designed" the crime so that her children would find the body.

She said Restivo had been "forensically aware" and had carefully planned the killing. She praised the police for the way they had found the evidence that convicted him. She added that she was grateful that the police had continued to watch Restivo to prevent him from attacking again.

During his seven-week trial at Winchester crown court, Restivo, an Italian national, was also accused of killing 16-year-old Elisa Claps in the loft of a church in Potenza, southern Italy, and leaving cut strands of her own hair in her hands and next to her body.

Both women suffered wounds to their chests but the jury was told the killer's "hallmark" was to leave cut hair at the scene.

Restivo admitted he had a "fetish" for cutting hair from women and girls in the UK and Italy, often while they travelled on buses. The court was told he had cut the hair of 15 women in the UK and nine in Italy.

The family of Claps claimed Restivo should not have been at liberty in the UK to kill Barnett because the police ought to have caught him for the murder of the Italian teenager.

The teenager's brother, Gildo, and mother, Filomena, claim the church where Elisa's body was found was never searched properly and a search warrant to enter Restivo's home nearby was not issued despite him being the last person to see her alive.

There are conspiracy theories in Italy that Restivo was protected because his father was the director of the national library in Italy and claims that many people in Potenza knew the body was hidden in the church but did nothing about it.

Mr Justice Burnett adjourned the case until Friday morning for sentence.

Restivo, 39, was born in Sicily and lived in Potenza before moving to Bournemouth in Dorset in May 2002.

Police quickly came to believe Restivo had killed Barnett, 48, in November 2002 and kept him under intense surveillance amid fears he would strike again.

But it was not until Claps' body was discovered in the church loft where she had been killed in 2010 – 17 years after she vanished – that the British authorities felt they could make a case against Restivo largely based on the similarities of the two ritualistic murders.

The Italian authorities want Restivo extradited to face trial over the murder of Elisa Claps. Officers may also quiz him about other unsolved murders in Italy.

In the UK, the Criminal Cases Review Commission has been watching the Restivo trial because the legal team for a man called Omar Benguit convicted of killing South Korean student Jong Ok-shin in July 2002 three streets from Barnett's home claim Restivo could also be guilty of that attack. Shin was also stabbed to death.