THE man accused of murdering Heather Barnett told “lie upon lie” about what he did on the morning she died, Winchester Crown Court heard today.

Danilo Restivo, 39, of Chatsworth Road, Charminster, told police he left home at 8.10am or 8.20am on the morning of November 12, 2002, and bought a bus ticket at 8.44am in Richmond Park Road and caught a bus to Nacro in Wallisdown Road.

But Michael Bowes QC, prosecuting, said the ticket bought in Charminster that morning “was quite deliberately put forward as a false alibi”.

He added that it did not establish any more than that Restivo had purchased a ticket.

Mr Bowes said he could have bought it and got straight off the bus or got off at the next stop.

In either event, the walk back to Heather Barnett’s flat would only have taken a matter of minutes.

Mr Bowes told the jury they would hear evidence of CCTV footage of a man crossing Charminster Road at 9.24am which one witness, shop worker Claire George, would identify as Restivo.

“We say he was back at Heather’s by 8.55am murdered and mutilated her, changed clothes and was back on Charminster Road by 9.24am“, said Mr Bowes.

Mr Bowes said evidence would be produced to show that a computer at Nacro, where Restivo was on a training course, had not been used between 9.09am and 10.10am even though Restivo had claimed in a police interview he had arrived at 9am and logged on straight away.

Turning to events in Italy in 1993, Mr Bowes said: “Our case is that Restivo was responsible for the murder of Elisa Claps.”

He reminded the jury they were not trying Restivo for that murder but said they now knew of the “striking similarities” between the deaths of Elisa Claps and Heather Barnett.

He added: “If you are sure he killed Elisa you should use that evidence to establish that the same person killed Heather Barnett.”

Closing the prosecution’s opening statement, Mr Bowes said: “We say evidence against Danilo Restivo is compelling.”

Heather’s body was discovered by her two children Terry, then 14, and Caitlin, then 11, in their ground floor flat in Capstone Road, Charminster, on November 12, 2002.

She suffered multiple head injuries and her body was mutilated. Someone else’s cut head hair was placed in her right hand.

A video interview with Terry was played to the jury this morning and will resume this afternoon.

Italian national Restivo denies murdering Heather Barnett.

The trial continues.