Yiannoulla Yianni: Man charged over schoolgirl's rape and murder 34 years ago

'The Met never closes unsolved murders,' says Detective Inspector Julie Willats

Yiannoulla Yianni in 1982 (PA)

A 56-year-old man has been charged with the rape and murder of a schoolgirl 34 years ago.

The body of Yiannoulla Yianni, 17, was found by her parents at their home in Hampstead, north London, in 1982 after she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

James Warnock, of Harrington Street, north London, was arrested on Tuesday and will appear at Hendon Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Detective Inspector Julie Willats of the Metropolitan Police'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 inquiry and to follow-up any fresh information which has become known to us."

On the day she died, Friday August 13 1982, Yiannoulla had spent the morning at home with her mother, and at around 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 around 3pm they found her dead.

Yiannoulla, who attended Quintin Kynaston School in St John's Wood, had a part-time job at Woolworths in Finchley Road, north London.

Over the years since her death more than 1,000 witness statements have been taken, a series of public appeals for information made and a reward.

Press Association