AN ITALIAN judge has found strong indications that Friedrich Vernarelli, the Italian man remanded in custody over the deaths of two Irish women, had been using drugs.

PRESSURE was growing yesterday for Italian officials to place in custody the son of a former police chief accused of causing the deaths of two Irish women as they celebrated St Patrick’s Day.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has named the two Irish women who were killed early today when they were hit by a car as they holidayed in Rome.