John Travolta fantasist James Warnock jailed for life for 1980s rape and murder of teenage girl
An "evil" John Travolta fantasist has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years for the brutal rape and murder of a teenage girl 34 years ago.
Self-employed tiler James Warnock, 56, evaded justice for decades after strangling 17-year-old Yiannoulla Yianni in her own home, just half a mile from where he lived.
Standing at 5ft 6in, Warnock was aged 22 at the time of the murder and gave the impression of being a "cocky ladies' man", with his hair carefully coiffured and blow-dried like his Saturday Night Fever idol.
Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard QC said Miss Yianni had endured a "terrifying ordeal" at knifepoint and was killed in a way that was "cruel, brutal and without mercy".
What happened?
On August 13 1982, Miss Yianni, known as Lucy or Noodles, had been with her parents at their shoe repair shop minutes away from their Hampstead home.
Yiannoulla's mother, Elli, had sent her home to start preparing a leg of lamb for supper, saying she would join her soon.
She was playing the latest Patrice Rushen hit Forget Me Nots on the record player when Warnock knocked on her door at about 2pm.
Half an hour later, Yiannoulla's parents arrived home to "a sight beyond their worst imagining" - their daughter's partially naked body lying on their bed, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said.
Evading justice
The crime shocked the nation and led to high-profile police appeals, with detectives travelling as far afield as Australia in their quest to catch the killer.
More than 1,000 people came forward with information but despite the public appeals, including a televised reconstruction featuring Miss Yianni's sister Maria, no real suspects were identified.
Police remained no closer to finding the doorstep stalker, and the case remained unsolved for decades.
The victim's father George Yianni appealed to then prime minister Margaret Thatcher and the commissioner of Scotland Yard in an effort to keep the investigation going.
He never recovered from his grief and died in 1988 after contracting a brain tumour.
Breakthrough
It was not until December 2015 that Scotland Yard got a "lucky break" after Warnock was caught sharing indecent pictures of children with an undercover officer online.
Police tracked him down after his DNA was added to the national database and found to be a match for samples taken from Yiannoulla's body.
The divorced father-of-two, who was still living in the local community, claimed he had a secret affair with Yiannoulla, even though the teenager was brought up in a traditional Greek Cypriot family and never had a boyfriend.
A family's tears
Warnock was put on trial and the victim's 86-year-old mother was among those to give evidence.
Miss Yianni's brothers and sister, who had to relive the nightmare of her violent death, broke down in tears as a jury at the Old Bailey took just over two hours to find Warnock guilty.
They said the loss of their sister had left the family "saturated by grief", although they never gave up hope of finding justice for her.
Detective Inspector Julie Willats said: "He must have known we would be coming for him. It's the science that has solved this one for us."
Misery beyond measure
Nicholas Hilliard QC told Warnock at the sentencing: "It is impossible to understand how one human being could do such things to another and in the process you visited misery beyond measure on those whom Yiannoulla was and is so dear and which will never leave them."
The Crown Prosecution Service thanked the victim's family for supporting the prosecution and for giving evidence in court.