A SHOPWORKER identified Danilo Restivo on CCTV footage showing a man crossing a road in Charminster on the morning of Heather Barnett’s murder, Winchester Crown Court heard yesterday.

Giving evidence, Claire George said she watched the video on BBC’s Crimewatch programme on September 12, 2006, and called detectives to say she could identify the man.

Mrs George told the jury she knew of both Heather and Restivo as they were regular customers in the pharmacies she worked for in Charminster.

After watching the Crimewatch programme, Mrs George recalled telling her daughter: “It looks like someone I know. Mr Restivo.”

When asked by the prosecution what it was that made her think it was Restivo, Mrs George replied: “The posture. If you see someone enough times, you can recognise them by their posture.”

David Jeremy QC, representing Restivo, asked Mrs George whether her background knowledge of the case from the papers and the internet and the fact she knew Restivo had previously been arrested for Heather’s murder might have influenced the way she viewed the clip.

Mrs George replied: “No, I don’t.”

The court also heard from Anthony Merrifield, a retired Dorset Police officer, who recorded how long it took to walk from the bus stops Restivo claims he went to on the morning Heather died – November 12, 2002 – to her flat in Capstone Road.

He told the court it took two minutes to walk from a bus stop on Richmond Park Road to Heather’s flat and the same route avoiding Charminster Road took six minutes.

To walk from the next bus stop in Alma Road and walk back to the Richmond Park Road stop and on to Capstone Road was 11 minutes.

Home Office pathologist Dr Allen Anscombe gave a detailed account of the injuries Heather Barnett suffered on the day she died.

He said the 48-year-old seamstress was found with a clump of light brown hair resting in the palm of her hand.

Both her breasts had been cut off and placed on the floor by the side of her head.

Her throat had been cut.

He put the time of death to nearer when she was last seen alive in the morning rather than near the time of 4pm when she was found.

Dr Anscombe said his post mortem examination identified 10 separate injuries on Heather’s head.

He added the cuts to her body were not random slashes but injuries caused with a “degree of care and control”.

“The relative lack of bleeding associated with these injuries suggest these were inflicted after she was already dead,” he added.

Finishing his evidence, Dr Anscombe said the process of inflicting all the injuries, including dragging Heather’s body from the workroom to the bathroom would require no more than a small number of minutes.

Restivo, 39, of Chatsworth Road, Charminster, denies murdering Heather Barnett.

The trial continues.