Man charged with 1982 rape and murder of schoolgirl Yiannoulla Yianni
A 56-year-old man has been charged with the rape and murder of a schoolgirl more than 30 years ago.
A 56-year-old man has been charged with the rape and murder of a schoolgirl more than 30 years ago.
James Warnock, of Harrington Street, north London, was arrested in Golders Green, London, on Tuesday (January 12) and will appear at Hendon Magistrates Court on Thursday (January 14).
The murder inquiry now one of the longest-running investigations in British police history – was launched by the Metropolitan Police Service on August 13, 1982, after the parents of 17-year old Yiannoulla Yianni found their daughter`s body at the family home in Belsize Road, Hampstead.
She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
On the day that she died, Yiannoulla had spent the morning at home with her mother. At around 12.30pm they walked to the family`s shop near to their home to take lunch to Yiannoulla`s father and brother.
An hour later Yiannoulla returned home to prepare dinner while her mother stayed at the shop. That was the last time her family saw her alive.
Her parents found Yiannoulla`s body when they returned home at 3pm that day.
The 17-year-old was a pupil at Quintin Kynaston in Marlborough Hill at the time of her death.
Investigating officers made a number of appeals containing the description of their main, and only apparent suspect a 5ft 6in, 20-something man with black, neatly combed hair, wearing a blue jacket in appeals for information.
Possibly from the Greek-Cypriot community, he had been seen talking to Yiannoulla outside the family home an hour before she was found. Police worked on the assumption the girl knew her killer because there had been no forced entry into the home.
In the years since her death more than 1,000 witness statements have been taken, a series of public appeals for information made and a £10,000 reward offered.
Detective Inspector Julie Willats of the Metropolitan Police Services homicide and major crime command, said: The Met never closes unsolved murders.
Regardless of the passage of time, cases can and will be reviewed for any new opportunities to develop previously unknown lines of inquiry and to follow-up any fresh information which has become known to us.