Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Unluckiest Man In Europe ?

I blogged many a year back on an unfortunate chap in London who kept being accused of rape by different women, none of whom knew each other, and acquitted - five times over many years. One day he was accused and convicted (at which point his two previous rape convictions were revealed). Perhaps it turned out he'd been fortunate after all, given the five acquittals.

There's an Italian living in the charming small Dorset town of Charminster (or he was until recently - this Austrian report says he's not to be found) who moved there via Bournemouth from Potenza, Italy after being the last person to see sixteen year old Elisa Claps, who disappeared without trace in 1993 after meeting him in Holy Trinity Church. There was no forensic evidence against him but according to this most detailed site he served two years for perjury, not satisfying an investigating court with his evidence.

Nine years later two young children returned from school to their Bournemouth home to find their mother brutally murdered - a murder with a couple of odd features. As ill luck would have it, our Italian, Danilo Restivo, lived just opposite. He was arrested and questioned by the police several times but no evidence against him could be found.

In 2007 some ill-intentioned fellow posted him a couple of cartridges from Italy.

Now the desiccated body of poor Elisa Claps has been found - in the roof of the church where she was last seen. God rest her soul - and Heather Barnett's, too.

The whole thing's most odd. Surely the church was searched when she went missing ?

Meanwhile, the discovery of Elisa's body has thrown up more speculation

The discovery was made only on Wednesday despite renovation work taking place on the church twice since her disappearance, prompting claims that her body may have been moved since she was killed.
Not only that, but according to the same Austrian report ...

A local newspaper has also printed claims that Elisa was killed by a priest who worked in the Most Holy Trinity Church at the time she vanished, and died two years ago.

"It's impossible Father Mimì Sabia didn't know anything about what had happened in his church. The truth is that he got Elisa pregnant and killed her," La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno reported an unnamed local source as saying.

Another local priest, Father Marcello Cozzi, said: "There was an atmosphere of a conspiracy of silence in those years. I think someone wanted to help the killer evade capture."
Well, that would certainly help explain why she ended up in the roof, but what of our perjuring Dorsetshire Italian ? The police seem to think that the same person killed both people. I can't see a fornicating Italian priest heading to Bournemouth to eliminate a total stranger somehow, even after all the other recent Church revelations.

Most puzzling. Let us hope the forensic people can bring aid and comfort.