Judge finds signs Rome driver was using drugs

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.

Remanding Vernarelli in custody, Judge Luisana Figliola said not only had he refused a drugs test, but a doctor had “verified dilated pupils, which strongly indicated the suspect was under the influence of drugs”.

The judge also revealed he had lost his licence on April 20, 2005, but did not say what the reason was.

Vernarelli, who has been charged with drink driving and killing Liz Gubbins, from Limerick, and Marie Clare Collins, from Co Kildare, told the court he did not oppose a prosecution demand he be kept in jail.

Vernarelli arrived at Rome’s Regina Coeli prison with his lawyer Giovanni Marcellitti yesterday morning and told waiting journalists he would not be objecting to a prosecution request that the crime was too serious to allow him to continue under house arrest alone. As he went into the courtroom, he said: “I want to go to prison.”

Vernarelli was arrested after the Mercedes he was driving mowed down the two women as they crossed a road on Lungotevere Altoviti, near Castel Sant’Angelo in downtown Rome.

He initially refused to take a drugs and alcohol test, although a later alcohol test he was forced to take confirmed he was four-and-a-half times over legal limits.

Vernarelli was allowed home after the accident, arriving at his former police chief father’s home in the care of two police officers.

But after a wave of public outrage at the decision, and official complaints by road safety groups, he announced yesterday he wanted to go to jail until he goes on trial, where he faces up to 12 years on what are expected to be manslaughter charges.

His father Roberto Vernarelli said: “I’ve spoken with my son about what happened. He is still in shock but he agreed to accept his responsibility.”

He answered questions for two hours in front of Judge Figliola before he was sent to the cells. He reportedly accepted responsibility for the accident, but said he could remember little about the night in question.

As he left the jail the Vernarelli family lawyer Mr Marcellitti said: “He and the family certainly didn’t expect all this attention from the media and the public. We’ve been trying to stop him reading the papers and at least inside he will be spared that, but I don’t believe jail is the right place. He is only in jail because the public demands it — not because it is right.”

The court appearance came as EU transport spokesman Jacques Barrot urged tougher action for bad drivers. He said: “Member states have to be more severe in the punishment of car accidents.”

And in Italy, Tania Garofoli, a lawyer for the association of relatives and victims of road accidents, said: “We want to take part in this process and make sure the charges are murder and not manslaughter.”

Road safety organisations also staged protest actions in downtown Rome using mobile speed monitors to show drivers how fast they were going. They also gathered signatures for a campaign to remove zebra crossings, like the one where the two women died, to replace them with proper traffic light controlled crossings.

When Vernarelli goes on trial he faces charges of manslaughter, drink driving and leaving the scene of an accident. The date for the trial depends on whether he wants to plead guilty and also on how long the eventual sentence is likely to be.