CONVICTED double killer Danilo Restivo will find out next week whether he will be allowed a full appeal hearing in Italy.

The 40-year-old, 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 and is contesting both this and the conviction.

Restivo has been temporarily released to the Italian authorities by HM Prison Service for the court hearing in Salerno.

He appeared in court last Tuesday and was told to reappear on April 6 when the judge is expected to make a decision about whether his appeal case will go to full trial.

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.

Italian national 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.

He brutally attacked the 48-year-old in her home on November 12, 2002.

But in November last year, 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 cases.

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