THE man convicted of killing Heather Barnett will face the first in a series of extradition hearings today.

Danilo Restivo, 39, was found guilty of the murder of the seamstress last week and sentenced to a whole life term behind bars.

He hit Heather over the head with a hammer-type object, dragged her body to the bathroom of her flat in Capstone Road, Charminster, and mutilated her body.

Her two children Terry, then 14, and Caitlin, then 11, returned home from school on November 12, 2002 and found their mother’s body.

Eight and half years later, Restivo was brought to trial at Winchester Crown Court and after hearing seven weeks of evidence the jury unanimously returned their guilty verdict.

In 2010, shortly after he was charged with Heather’s murder, Restivo was charged with the murder of 16-year-old schoolgirl Elisa Claps.

She disappeared from Potenza in Italy on September 12, 1993. Her mummified remains were discovered bricked up in the loft of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Potenza in March last year. She had been stabbed.

Following the conclusion of the Heather Barnett murder trial, Italian prosecutors are now able to begin extradition proceedings to apply for Restivo to temporarily return to Italy to be tried over Elisa’s murder.

Today Restivo is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court via video link from Winchester Prison.

A summary trial date has been set in Italy for November.