A computer engineer was being extradited from Britain to Italy today to start a 26-year prison sentence for the kidnap and murder of a wealthy Italian aristocrat 30 years ago.

Italian Enrico Mariotti, 66, was collected from his home in Burgess Hill by three officers from Scotland Yard's extradition unit.

He declined to comment as he and an officer placed two bags into a Ford Mondeo before leaving to catch a flight from Heathrow Airport to Italy.

Earlier, he and his partner Christine Paterson spent their last hours together before his extradition clearing his belongings from his detached home.

Mariotti, a grandfather-of-four, was implicated by a "supergrass" in the abduction and killing of Massimiliano Grazioli, who was snatched from his BMW by a gang outside Rome in November 1977.

The murder of Duke Grazioli, who had substantial media interests and whose family had been millers to the Vatican, was said to have been a notorious and highly publicised crime.

After his kidnap, the family of Duke Grazioli received a ransom demand for 10 billion lira.

Following four months of negotiations with the kidnappers, his son Giulio, finally paid 1.5 billion lira (£750,000) in March 1978, throwing the cash in a bag from a motorway bridge after the gang below gave agreed codewords.

But the duke was nonetheless killed, having apparently recognised the face of one of his kidnappers. His body has never been found.

Mariotti, who has lived in the UK since 1993, was accused of supplying inside information about the aristocrat and his family and orchestrating the kidnapping.

He denied involvement but was convicted in his absence to 24 years' imprisonment by the Italian authorities in 1995 on the strength of testimony by a "supergrass".

His sentence was subsequently increased to 26 years following a review in 2000.

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