Convicted rapist James Citro, with an address at Abbots Close, Worle,Weston-Super-Mare, North Somerset, England went on trial last week at the Old Bailey in London, accused of the murder of a Lithuanian woman in London some 13 years ago.
Nijole Siskeviciene
The now accused, 54-year-old James Citro, was originally born James Kennedy and is a native of Nenagh, Country Tipperary. Kennedy was previously jailed for raping two women in his home town of Nenagh in 1978. He was arrested and charged over the Lithuanian divorcee’s death earlier in January this year as part of a police cold case review. A jury was sworn in on Monday last and the trial is expected to last two weeks.
The body of the murdered 44-year-old woman, named as Nijole Siskeviciene, who worked as a hotel chambermaid, was found strangled close to garages near her home in Wembley, Northwest London, on October 20, 1998. Miss Siskeviciene and her teenage son Vytautis Siskevicius, had only moved to the UK the previous year and had then only recently moved to that address the previous week.
James Citro, who changed his surname from Kennedy, has denied murdering Nijole Siskeviciene, 44, in Lancelot Road, Wembley, in October 1998. He was arrested following a drink-driving incident in July 2010 and his DNA was found to match a sample from this earlier attack, the court heard. Kennedy had lived just two doors away from the mother of one at the time of the murder, but denied knowing her when interviewed by police, following house to house inquiries.
However, he would later admit to perverting the course of justice by sending two anonymous letters to police following the killing. Citro used one of these letters to claim that “two dark men,” were seen with the body of Miss Siskeviciene. In the second letter, he passed himself off as an elderly person writing, “A girl was carried out from a house by two black men.” Citro’s DNA was found to match DNA on the letters and police found similar stationery in his home during a subsequent search.
The victim who was raped and strangled, was found by a passerby at around 7.30pm on October 20, 1998, propped up outside garages 200 yards to the rear of Lancelot Crescent, where she resided, prosecution QC Philip Bennetts told jurors. When he was arrested at his home in Weston-super-Mare in January this year, Kennedy, who now walks with the aid of a stick, said ‘Oh my God,‘ and was ‘visibly shaken,‘, the court heard.
Citro was convicted of two rapes in Ireland in 1979 in which the victims were also throttled. Kennedy /Citro, then aged just 21, had offered a 19-year-old girl a lift in his car and raped her, as he tightened a ligature around her neck until she passed out. He then threw her into a lake and when she tried to reach the shore, continuously threw rocks at her.
His later second Irish victim, a 23-year-old, was attacked a month later and raped while Kennedy held his hands around her throat.
On his release from prison in Ireland, James Kennedy (now James Citro) fled to the UK.
His trial continues. See Update
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