HEATHER Barnett’s sister Denise has remembered her as “feisty and wonderful”.

She said in a statement: “Heather Barnett was feisty with a wonderful deep laugh and a great sense of humour.

“She was kind and honest with strong ethical principles which she passed onto her two children, Terry and Caitlin. She always worked very hard at whatever she did and built up a business on word of mouth for the quality of her workmanship and her flair for colour and design.

“Heather loved her children very much. She would have been horrified at the cruel and callous way Danilo Restivo designed her murder and mutilation so that her children had to find her body on return from school.

“Having heard the many alibis he worked out carefully picked apart, it was obvious he was arrogant and though only of himself. He even claimed he hugged the children as they waited on the pavement for the police to arrive after Terry’s brave 999 call.

“He did not touch them. But he managed to arrive home with Fiamma [now his wife] in time to be able to claim to do so in case he had inadvertently contaminated himself with their mother’s blood.

“From the start, Dorset Police warned us that the murderer was forensically aware. Our sister’s death was carefully planned. It would not be solved like an Agatha Christie novel where the murderer would confess; it would only be solved through forensic evidence, and so it has proved.

“As new tests became available, they were used and new research flowed from the work. We are grateful to the many forensic scientists who have helped to solve the case, including all the backroom staff whose careful work on thousands of tests was represented by the experts who gave evidence in court.

“We know there are many thousands of items taken for testing and for evidence that have not featured in court. Every single one had to be carefully handled and logged.”

She thanked Dorset Police, including the officers who monitored Restivo’s behaviour to keep other girls and women safe, and the jury for “seeing through” Restivo’s lies.

Read nine pages of complete coverage in the Daily Echo tomorrow, Thursday.