Sebastiano Magnanini: Body dumped in river revealed to be failed Italian art thief

Addict’s body disposed of in a canal in London after he was found dead in a London flat

The body of Sebastiano Magnanini was found tied to a submerged shopping trolley (Met Police/PA)

When the identity of the tattooed dead man found tied to a supermarket trolley and dumped in a north London canal was discovered to be an Italian art thief, it invited all sorts of lurid theories. Was it a Mafia hit or a long-running feud over criminal loot?

The more mundane and grubby truth surrounding the death of Sebastiano Magnanini emerged yesterday as the final hours of the struggling addict were revealed to have involved a fatal quest for a deadly hit of class A drugs in north London – and his exploitation by a group of petty criminals.

Mr Magnanini’s misfortune was to have met Michael Walsh, 41, who took the man from Venice back to his flat where they took heroin and crack cocaine. As the freelance carpenter apparently lay in a drug-induced stupor, Walsh and another man – attracted by the lure of new trainers and a tracksuit – took his bank card and stole nearly £2,000 from his account.

When Walsh returned to the flat and found the 46-year-old dead, he panicked and disposed of the body with another accomplice in a north London canal, a court heard yesterday.

The two men were captured on CCTV pushing the trolley to the canal and then weighing the body down with weights, Scotland Yard said. The body was found soon afterwards.

The incompetent crime had echoes of Mr Magnanini’s own blighted criminal past. The Italian was jailed for 18 months in 1998 for the theft of a valuable painting – a 1732 work by the Rococo master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo – from a church in his native Venice.

Michael Walsh gave Mr Magnanini heroin and crack cocaine before taking his bank card (PA)

That operation to steal The Education of the Virgin was ham fisted. Mr Magnanini was one of two men who evaded rudimentary security but when their knife proved unsuitable for the job, they went to find a third man.

During the night, the trio went for a drink in a local bar before returning to the church where they smoked joints while carrying out the work.

The trail of clues meant that the slightly damaged painting was recovered within three months from a warehouse and the group caught.

Since then, Mr Magnanini had been involved only in petty crime and had travelled widely – to Colombia, Cambodia and Thailand, according to his friends.

He had subsequently spent his time between Italy and Britain where he worked as a freelance carpenter. His friends described him as a free spirit, though while he had struggled with his addiction, he had contacted friends to tell them that he wanted to retrain as a journalist in London.

Police were able to follow his trail after leaving work in southwest London in September last year as he travelled across the capital using public transport to arrive in north London.

His body found near a tunnel on the Regent’s Canal in north London. His hands and feet had been tied together in the foetal position and the trolley was weighed down with dumb-bells, Blackfriars Crown Court was told.

He was eventually identified from fingerprint checks after Scotland Yard released details about his tattoos, including a lizard and a fish on his torso, to try to find out who he was.

Walsh was yesterday jailed for four years for preventing the lawful burial of Mr Magnanini’s body. Paul Williams, 64, who helped him dispose of the body was jailed for two years. Daniel Hastie, 22, who helped clear the Italian’s bank account, was jailed for a year.

Judge John Hillen told them: “There are two matters of concern to the court, the disrespect shown to the mortal remains of a fellow human being and disregard for the dignity of the person that that body represents and the family and friends of that person.”

Detective Chief Inspector Rebecca Reeves, of Scotland Yard, said: “Walsh and Williams showed a callous disregard for the consequences of their actions and Walsh stole from a man who was either dead or dying.

“If they had been successful in concealing Sebastiano’s body, his family would have had to endure even longer than they did without knowing where he was or what had happened to him.”