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.

ALMOST 60 Irish holidaymakers died abroad in the first three months of the year, it emerged today.

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.