LEADING judges have been urged to overturn a “whole life” sentence imposed on murderer Danilo Restivo.

Lawyers are asking the Court of Appeal in London to set a minimum prison term instead.

Restivo, now 40, was found guilty of the sadistic killing of Bournemouth mum-of-two and neighbour Heather Barnett in her Charminster flat in November 2002.

When sentenced he was told he would never be released from prison but he is one of a number appealing against the sentence. His lawyers appeared before five judges yesterday alongside those representing David Oakes and Michael Roberts, both subject to “whole-life” terms.

Oakes, 51, from Essex, “sadistically tortured” his former partner before shooting her and their two-year-old daughter.

Rapist Roberts terrorised elderly women in a London suburb for more than a decade before he was caught.

David Perry QC, for the Crown, said it is seeking to support the sentence given to Restivo.