James Warnock
James Warnock was 22 and a married man at the time he murdered Yiannoulla. He had two sons in 1983 and 1986 and got divorced in around 2003.
In the summer of 1982 he was living with his wife in a block of flats called Taplow Towers on Adelaide Road, not far from Belsize Road. He was working as a self-employed tiler doing mainly residential work across London, having previously completed an apprenticeship in ceramic tiling.
At the time of his arrest he was living alone in a flat and still doing building work.
James Warnock in the 1980’s
In police interview officers asked what he looked like in 1982. Warnock replied, admitting he thought he was attractive and looked like John Travolta with his hair immaculate, swept back and blow dried. He gave officers the impression he was ‘popular with the ladies’.
Warnock claimed the first time he met Yiannoulla he was working at a house on Goldhurst Terrace, behind Belsize Road. He said he called her Yuli, adding: “We hit it off really big time…lovely smile, yeah, a really nice girl, really, really lovely girl…”
He told officers about her family life and interests – all information that had previously been reported in the press.
He claimed he had the feeling she wanted to take things further and she was happy to become intimate.
Warnock said their relationship finished as the job he was working on nearby had come to an end and he “probably had someone else lined up”.
He said he had no idea she had been murdered despite the publicity and police presence in the area for weeks afterwards. In fact Warnock claimed he had visited her father’s shop to break things off a few days later – he said he didn’t see her but saw others working there. He was lying – by this time Yiannoulla was dead and the shop was shut for several weeks while her family mourned.
On 30 December 2015 police obtained his DNA and he was arrested for Yiannoulla’s murder.