Mafia boss Domenico Rancadore in custody after being rearrested Published duration 5 April 2014

image copyright Getty Images image caption Domenico Rancadore, right, won a battle against his extradition to Italy, last month

A convicted Mafia boss has been remanded in custody after being rearrested over his connections to the criminal network.

Domenico Rancadore, 65, was held in west London after a fresh European Arrest Warrant was received from Italy.

He had been allowed to stay in the UK after winning an extradition battle last month following a similar warrant.

He appeared in court where his lawyer described the arrest as an "abuse of process". Rancadore was refused bail.

The new European Arrest Warrant describes Rancadore, known as The Professor, as being "one of the heads of one of the most powerful Mafia organisations in Italy".

image copyright Reuters image caption Rancadore was arrested at his house in Uxbridge in August 2013

It adds he has an outstanding sentence of seven years to serve for "participation in Mafia association between 1987 and 1995".

In March, Rancadore won a fight against extradition to Italy, when a judge ruled prison conditions there would breach his human rights.

Later that month, he heard he would not face an appeal against that ruling because the Crown Prosecution Service had missed a deadline to lodge the appeal.

Rancadore was first arrested in August 2013 under a European Arrest Warrant for the same allegations.

'Terrible experience'

For 20 years he had evaded the authorities who accused him of fleeing Italy where he faced trial over his alleged Cosa Nostra "man of honour" connections and was convicted in his absence.

Rancadore and his wife moved with their two children to Uxbridge in west London in 1994 and lived under the name of Skinner, the maiden name of Mrs Rancadore's British mother.

At a previous hearing, Rancadore said he came to the UK to give his children "a good life", and to bring his time in Italy to an end.

He said the trial in which he was a defendant in the mid-1980s - involving 460 defendants, one of whom was his father - was a "terrible experience".

Asked about changing his name to Marc Skinner, he said it was to end ties with Italy, adding: "This was the only way."

Rancadore said he did not even contact his mother or father back home, saying: "I wanted to end everything with Sicily."

He will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court again next week for a second bail application.