Yiannoulla Yianni: Camden man charged with 1982 rape and murder of London schoolgirl

A 56-year-old man has been charged with the 1982 rape and murder of a London schoolgirl. The body of Yiannoulla Yianni, 17, was found by her parents at the family home in Belsize Road, South Hampstead, in 1982 after she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

James Warnock, of Harrington Street, Camden, was charged on Thursday (14 January) with her rape and murder. He was arrested on 12 January at an address in Golders Green, just two miles north of the murder scene, and will appear in custody at Hendon Magistrates' Court later on Thursday.

Detective Inspector Julie Willats, of the Met's 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 enquiry and to follow-up any fresh information which has become known to us."

On the day she died – 13 August 1982 – Yiannoulla had spent the morning at home with her mother. At about 12.30pm they walked together to the family's shop nearby to take the teenager's father lunch.

At 1.30pm she returned home alone to prepare dinner while her mother stayed at the shop. When her parents returned home at about 3pm they found her lifeless body.

Yiannoulla attended Quintin Kynaston school in St John's Wood, north-west London, and had a part-time job at Woolworths in Finchley Road, north London. Since her death more than 1,000 witness statements have been taken by police and a series of public appeals for information made.