Italy date set for Restivo appeal (From Bournemouth Echo)

Italy date set for Restivo appeal

12:00pm Tuesday 26th February 2013 in News By Paula Roberts

CONVICTED double killer Danilo Restivo is due to have his appeal case in Italy heard next month.

The Italian national, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Bournemouth mum Heather Barnett, was convicted in his absence in 2011 of killing 16-year-old schoolgirl Elisa Claps in Potenza, Italy, 20 years ago.

He was handed a 30-year prison term by the Italian courts.

Elisa disappeared without trace after meeting Restivo at a church in Potenza on September 12, 1993.

Her mummified remains were discovered bricked up in the roof of the church in March 2010.

Now Restivo will have his appeal against conviction and sentence heard in Salerno on March 20.

The trial will be open to the public and Restivo’s lawyers have applied to have the 40-year-old temporarily transferred to Italy so he can attend the case in person.

Neither the Home Office nor Ministry of Justice said they were able to comment on Restivo’s case.

The temporary surrender process is governed under section 52 of the Extradition Act 2003 and, when considering an application, the UK would seek assurances from judicial authorities in the relevant country that the individual would be kept in secure custody. Restivo was found guilty in June 2011 of the murder of mum-of-two Heather Barnett in Capstone Road, Charminster, and given a whole-life prison sentence.

But in November 2012 judges at the Court of Appeal quashed the whole-life tariff following a European Courts of Justice ruling that such sentences can only be used in the most extreme of cases.

Restivo was instead given a life sentence with a 40-year minimum term. This is the earliest he would be eligible for parole.

During the Heather Barnett murder trial at Winchester Crown Court, the jury heard Restivo, who lived opposite in Chatsworth Road, attacked the 48-year-old in her home on November 12, 2002.