Italian gets 7 years for killing Irish women

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.

Friedrich Vernarelli, who was the owner of the car involved in the incident, had claimed that he was not driving at the time of the accident. He was convicted of manslaughter, driving while drunk and leaving the scene of the crash.

Elizabeth Gubbins of Limerick and Mary Collins of Kildare were killed on March 18 last year after celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Rome. They were crossing a road on Lungotevere Altoviti, near Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.

Friedrich Vernarell, who was driving a black Mercedes, was located by police in a state of drunken confusion 800 metres away from the scene.

According to Pietro Grandoni and Enzo Zazza, two police officers who were in charge of Vernarelli at the police station, the suspect was so inebriated when arrested that he slept for a substantial period of his initial incarceration.

His father, Roberto Vernarelli, is a former police chief in the Italian capital and a vocal road safety campaigner. The Vernarelli family hired private detectives to help prove their son wasn’t behind the wheel. Last night his lawyer has said he will appeal the verdict.

Both Irish families read out statements after the sentence was handed down.

The Collins family spoke of their horror at their daughter’s body being left on Lungotevere Altoviti for over six hours.

“She was a beautiful and gentle daughter and sister. We loved her deeply and the pain of our loss is sometimes quite unbearable. She should have had the best years of her life ahead of her,” their statement read.

“We abhor the suggestions that she had too much to drink on that night. The toxicology report produced in court conclusively proved otherwise. During their first evening in Rome Mary and her three friends realised how dangerous the city was for pedestrians. We know that they promised each other to always obey the pedestrian lights. We reject the attempts which have been made to imply that they crossed against a red pedestrian light,” they said.

“Mary and her friend Elizabeth were mowed down by a car which was in the care and responsibility of somebody who drank excessively on that evening. He will have to live with the consequences. We will have to live without Mary. We appeal to drivers everywhere to slow down and never to drink and drive,” they added.

The Gubbins family spoke of how they are “devastated” at the loss of their daughter and sister, Elizabeth. “[She was] such a bright, vital part of our family life. We miss her every day, and regret that we were not with her in her hour of need,” they said.