DANILO Restivo was a liar and presented a deeply unattractive oddity but that did not make him a killer, his defence counsel said today.

David Jeremy QC said the police had believed for many years that Restivo had murdered Heather Barnett.

From their point of view it was just a matter of amassing the evidence over time, he said.

But there was a danger in that, he told the jury in his closing speech.

"That may be the danger of collecting the evidence to fit a theory of guilt," he added.

He said Restivo had lived most of his adult life under permanent suspicion of the murder Elisa Claps and Heather Barnett, which might account for his sense of paranoia and victim status.

"This is a highly unusual case in which a defendant is charged with the murder of one person but the jury hears evidence of a second murder,” he said.

Mr Jeremy reminded the jurors that they had laughed at his client in the box and that was completely understandable because he had "self destructed".

He also said the jury might think there was child-like quality in his behaviour, blaming illness for many of his problems and telling lies: often changing his story and exchanging one lie for an even worse one.

Mr Jeremy questioned whether Restivo's personality matched that of the person who had killed Heather Barnett and Elisa Claps, crimes of "almost inhuman depravity”.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel said common sense must play a big part in the verdict.

Making his closing speech, Michael Bowes QC told the jury they had listened to a great deal of evidence over several weeks, heard about just about every forensic technique that exists and visited the crime scene.

"In the end this is a very straightforward case. Danilo Restivo is the man who killed Heather Barnett," he said.

Mr Bowes said the defendant had told "lie upon lie upon lie" and added: "His lies have found him out."

He said Restivo's explanations regarding both the Barnett killing and that of Elisa Claps in Italy ranged from the absolutely absurd to the ridiculous.

His final words to the jury were: "There is a reason that all the evidence points to him. It is because it is him."

Restivo, 39 of Chatsworth Road, Bournemouth denies the murder of Heather Barnett on November 12 2002.