A man has been arrested for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in South Hampstead more than 30 years ago.

Yiannoulla Yianni’s body was found by her parents at their Belsize Road home on August 13, 1982.

The teenager had been raped and strangled.

Detectives have arrested a 56-year-old man at an address in Golders Green on suspicion of rape and murder.

Yiannoulla’s family has been informed of this development.

On the day she died, Yiannoulla had spent the morning at home with her mother.

At around 12.30pm they walked to the family’s shop nearby to take lunch to Yiannoulla’s father and brother.

At 1.30pm, Yiannoulla returned home to make dinner.

That was the last time her family saw her alive.

Her parents found Yiannoulla’s body when they returned home at around 3pm that day.

She went to Quintin Kynaston School, in St John’s Wood, and worked part-time at Woolworths in Finchley Road.

Detective Inspector Julie Willats, of the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: “The Met never close unsolved murders and regardless of the passage of time cases can and will be reviewed, for any new opportunities to develop previously unknown lines of enquiry, and follow-up any fresh information which has become known to us.

“Yiannoulla’s family - who understandably are still devastated by the loss of their beloved daughter and sister more than three decades ago - have been fully informed of this new development.”

The man arrested remains in police custody at a north London police station.