Irish rapist facing life sentence in UK for 1998 murder

A convicted rapist who killed a neighbour and tried to blame “two black men” is facing a life sentence today.

Irish-born James Citro (aged 54) was found guilty in October of murdering hotel worker Nijole Siskeviciene, 44.

Citro, who changed his name from Kennedy, was not arrested for 12 years.

When police stopped him for drink-driving in July last year, his DNA was taken and matched to the October 1998 murder.

Citro, of Abbots Close, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, admitted two offences of perverting justice in writing two anonymous letters to police after the murder.

Philip Bennetts QC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey that Miss Siskeviciene was strangled with a ligature and her body propped up in a sitting position outside garages at the back of her home in Lancelot Road, Wembley, north London. She had been sexually assaulted.

Citro had been living nearby in Lancelot Road. During house-to-house inquiries, he told police he did not know her.

A week later, two letters were sent to police. One said “two dark men” were seen with the body. The other claimed to be from an elderly person and said: “A girl was carried out from a house by two black men.”

Mr Bennetts said that Citro, originally from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, was convicted of two rapes in Ireland in 1979 in which the victims were held or throttled around the neck.