THE killer of Heather Barnett will die in prison.

Danilo Restivo looked on without emotion or reaction as Mr Justice Burnett told him: “You are a cold, depraved and calculating killer. There is no mitigation in this case and in my judgement there is no minimum term to be set.

“You will never be released.”

Then he told warders: “Take him down.”

Heather’s daughter Caitlin, sister Denise and brother Ben sat in the well of the court for the sentencing, rather than in the public gallery.

But Restivo stared straight ahead and refused to make eye contact.

Afterwards, Ben told the Echo: “He has no guts.”

It was a dramatic end to the often harrowing seven week trial.

It had taken the jury just five hours to return their guilty verdict at Winchester Crown Court the previous day.

Heather‘s body was discovered in the bathroom of her home in Capstone Road, Charminster, on November 12, 2002, by her two children Terry, then 14, and Caitlin, then aged 11.

The 48-year-old seamstress had been hit over the head with a hammer-type instrument. Her throat had been cut and both her breasts removed and placed by the side of her head.

A clump of someone else’s cut hair was placed in her right hand and strands of her own cut hair placed under her left.

Restivo of Chatsworth Road, Charminster, now faces extradition to Italy to stand trial for the murder of 16-year-old schoolgirl Elisa Claps. She disappeared from the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Potenza on September 12, 1993.

Her remains were discovered in the loft of the church in March last year.

Mr Justice Burnett told the 39-year-old Italian: “The evidence proves without a doubt you murdered Elisa Claps as well.”

And although Restivo has not been tried for Elisa’s death, the judge added: “I approach this sentencing as though you have killed before.

“You went to Heather’s house to kill and mutilate her and you arranged her body in a similar way to that of Elisa Claps. There is no doubt your motivation was, in part, sexual.

“You set up an alibi in advance but your alibi was demolished by the overwhelming weight of evidence.

“You made mistakes and in due course they found you out.”

He added: “You knew two children would find the butchered body of their mother and that they would be exposed to the depravity of your actions. You have unleashed destructive forces on the whole family, which will on doubt be felt down the years.”

Before sending him down he said: “There are no mitigating circumstances and none have been offered.”