WHAT kind of monster must he be?

Danilio Restivo has not been tried for the killing of Elisa Claps in Italy but the evidence before the jury at Winchester, where he was found guilty of killing Heather Barnett, showed that the deaths of both women were uncannily similar. Beyond reasonable doubt.

Does this killer have a conscience? Was he ever troubled by the horrors of what he had done?

I doubt it. There was something so chilling in the grotesque way he comforted Heather’s children in the street after they had found the mutilated body of their mother that it is hard to judge his evil acts by any normal standard of behaviour.

Did he reflect on the harrowing pain he caused that must gnaw into the souls of Heather and Elisa’s families? Does he understand that his pitiless cruelty was beyond compehension?

I don’t know what that stone-hearted rat is feeling today, locked up in a cell where be belongs. Will even a lifetime thinking about the terrible consequences of his twisted acts cause him remorse? I’m not even sure I care.

But we will all care about how the families of Heather and Elisa are feeling – and wonder at their courage and resilience in enduring so much.

They must be feeling a swirl of emotions today. How hard it must have been for them as the trial raked over the agony of memories.

But may the conclusion ease their silent aches, knowing that the brutal man who devastated their lives is safely behind bars.

It won’t bring Heather or Elisa back.

But there may be comfort in knowing Restivo will cause no other family to suffer the awful, unimaginable distress that they have so bravely borne.