Satanic rockers face sentencing for murders today

Three members of an Italian heavy metal group called the Beasts of Satan who confessed to taking part in three ritual murders were expected to be sentenced today.

The trio have confessed to roles in the grisly 1998 killings of 19-year-old Chiara Marino and Fabio Tollis, aged 16, in woods outside Milan.

Five other members of their suspected Satanic cult have been ordered to stand trial in June.

Prosecutors say the suspects belonged to an occult sect that carried out the killings in a drug-fuelled ritual. Marino was stabbed to death and Tollis, her boyfriend, was killed and buried next to her.

Police said they had tried once before to kill the two by burning them alive in a car on New Year’s Eve.

In the third murder, an accused’s girlfriend was buried alive after being shot.

Cult members also stand accused of pushing a boy to commit suicide.

The trial comes amid growing concern in Italy that young people are turning to Satanism and the occult.