A WANTED Mafia suspect who lived undetected in Darwen for more than 10 years is to have his future decided by an appeal court next month.

Guiseppe Cavallo, 53, is said to have more than seven years of prison to serve in Italy for a range of offences, including shooting two prison guards, abducting two others, fraud and possessing firearms, ammunition and dynamite.

But he managed to live a normal life in Darwen until 1995, when Scotland Yard detectives tracked him down at his home on Higher Perry Street - by looking him up in the phone book.

He was recommended for extradition by Bow Street magistrates in London in December the same year, after they heard details of his crimes, said to have been committed in a 10-year period beginning in 1971.

But he has been back living with his family in Darwen for more than a year as he awaits a Court of Appeal hearing against the decision.

Now he could be taken back to Italy if he loses the appeal, which has been provisionally set for March 13.

The appeal is expected to last up to two days but judgment may be reserved, depending on how the judge's consider the case.

Cavallo, a pizza chef who is originally from Corigliano, was released on bail with sureties totalling £65,000 last January.

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