A 33-YEAR-OLD Italian man has been sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay €1 million in compensation after he was convicted of knocking down and killing two young Irish women in Rome before fleeing the scene.

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.

THE two Irish women killed in Rome by a drunk driver early yesterday were named as Elizabeth Gubbins, from Mount Shannon Road, Lisnagry, Co Limerick, and her friend, Mary Collins, from Co Kildare.