{By WILLIAM McLENNAN}
{Camden New Journal} YIANNOULLA Yianni’s killer was today jailed for life and told by a judge that he had “visited misery beyond measure” on her family in the 34 years since her death.
James Warnock, 56, was found guilty of rape and murder on Thursday at the end of a four-week trial at the Old Bailey.
The 17-year-old was brutally attacked at her family home in Belsize Road on August 13, 1982. Her killer escaped justice for more than three decades, but was finally caught when his DNA was taken at the end of last year when he was arrested for distributing images of child abuse online.
Sentencing Warnock, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said he posed “a grave risk to young woman”.
He told Warnock he would spend a minimum of 25 years in prison “before you can even be considered for parole,” adding: “You will most likely die in prison”.
Judge Hilliard said Warnock’s actions were “in equal measure cruel, brutal and without mercy,” adding: “You visited misery beyond measure upon those to who Yiannoulla was and is so dear and which will never leave them.”
Praising Yiannoulla he said: “Such was the brightness of her spirit and the sweetness of her nature that she sill refuses to be defined and remembered only by the awful things that you did to her instead she remained captured for all time by the photograph we have seen of the happy and hopeful 17-year-old.”
The judge praised her father, George, who died in 1988 never having seen his daughter’s killer brought to justice, for his insisting on regular meeting with police to keep the case alive.
He said: “His family should know that he will be remembered for doing what he did to ensure the case was never overlooked.”
He also praised the role of local media over past three decades and said: “The Camden New Journal and the Hampstead and Highgate Express are great examples of local papers working for their communities.”
