Danilo Restivo charged with murdering Heather Barnett

Italian national Danilo Restivo, a trainee dental technician of Chatsworth Road, Charminster, will appear before Bournemouth magistrates tomorrow morning.

Restivo, originally from Potenza, Italy, was charged by detectives at Poole police station on Thursday afternoon.

He was arrested in an early morning operation at his home on Wednesday.

Officers sealed off the detached property and are continuing to carry out a full forensic examination, a process that may take up to a week.

Scaffolding and screening were erected around the exterior.

Mr Restivo shares the house with his wife Fiamma, who moved out of the property on Wednesday morning as the police operation began.

Heather, 48, a seamstress, was found by her children in the bathroom of their home in Capstone Road on November 12 2002.

She had suffered severe injuries and strands of someone else’s cut hair had been placed in her right hand.

Members of Heather’s family, including her children now aged 19 and 22 and her brother and sister, have been kept fully informed of ongoing developments, say detectives.

Meanwhile Dorset officers continue to liaise with their counterparts in Italy over the disappearance of schoolgirl Elisa Claps in 1993.

The body of the 16-year-old was discovered hidden in a church in home town two months ago, 17 years after she went missing.

The case has formed a significant part of Dorset police inquiries in the past six years, with officers concentrating on potential similarities with the Heather Barnett investigation.

An autopsy has been completed but its publication has been withheld by the public prosecutor in Salerno.

The inquiry into Heather’s death has been one of the longest running cases for Dorset’s Major Crime Investigation Team, led by Detective Superintendent Mark Cooper.

In a statement on the steps of Bournemouth police station, Mr Cooper said a large team of detectives had worked “tirelessly” on the investigation.