A YOUNG woman told a court yesterday that the man accused of murdering Heather Barnett snipped a chunk of hair from her head as she travelled in front of him on a bus.

Katie McGoldrick said the incident happened sometime between September 2002 and May 2003 as she travelled to school.

Giving evidence at Winchester Crown Court, Ms McGoldrick said: “I remember him because he was sat uncomfortably close. I could feel my hair being tugged but I thought nothing of it. And then I heard a sound like a snip.”

Ms McGoldrick said the man got off the bus at the next stop outside the Richmond Arms pub.

“I was by the window next to the pavement and he stood right there and stared in,” she said.

She said when she got to school she discovered a chunk of hair was missing.

Stephen Climie, prosecuting, said in June 2004 Ms McGoldrick identified Danilo Restivo as the man who cut her hair.

The court also heard from Holly Stroud, who spoke about the morning of March 13, 2003, when she caught a bus from outside the Richmond Arms pub to school in Southbourne.

“I felt like someone was pulling my hair. It wasn’t like tugging, more like individual strands were being pulled,” she said.

“My hair was nearly all the way down my back.

“Then I felt a pretty hard tug on my head. I turned round to see what it was and it wasn’t what I was expecting to see. I was really shocked to see it was a grown man.”

She added: “His hands were on the seat close to me and I could see his face staring straight at me.”

Ms Stroud told the court she later noticed something sticky in her hair with a menthol odour. She washed it when she got to school and noticed strands of her hair were falling down into the sink.

The court heard that Ms Stroud had later identified Restivo to police.

Mr Climie said Ms Stroud saw Restivo on a number of occasions on trains and on station platforms as she travelled between Bournemouth and Southampton.

Mark Goddard also gave evidence yesterday that he witnessed a man pull a girl’s long hair over the seat and under an anorak which was resting on his lap.

Mr Goddard said he glared at the man to get his attention and the man let go and sat back in his seat.

The man then did the same thing again a short while later, the court heard.

Mr Goddard described the man as around 6ft, with broad shoulders. He was wearing spectacles, had dark hair, bulbous eyes and was white to slightly tanned.

Danilo Restivo, 39, of Chatsworth Road, Charminster, denies murdering Heather Barnett on November 12, 2002.

The trial continues