THE TRIAL of Friedrich Vernarelli, the 32-year-old Italian accused of the manslaughter of holidaymakers Marie Collins and Elizabeth Gubbins in a hit-and-run driving incident in Rome last March, opened in Rome yesterday morning, only to be adjourned until November 7th.
Ms Collins (28), from Athy, Co Kildare, and Ms Gubbins (27), from Lisnagry, Limerick, were killed on St Patrick's night at a pedestrian crossing on the Lungotevere Road beside the Tiber and opposite Castel Sant'Angelo in central Rome.
The women were on their way to their hotel when they were struck by a Mercedes car, allegedly driven by Mr Vernarelli.
Stopped by police shortly after the incident, following a crash into a traffic sign and some parked cars two kilometres further along the road, Mr Vernarelli was initially put under house arrest, then imprisoned in mid-April.
It is expected that when the trial reconvenes, Mr Vernarelli will face charges on at least four counts - manslaughter, drunken driving, failure to stop and damage to public property.
Media reports at the time claimed that a breathalyser test showed Mr Vernarelli's alcohol content to be 4½ times above the Italian legal limit.
Initially, Mr Vernarelli appeared to admit his guilt, saying that he wanted "to pay" for his "crimes", while his lawyers indicated last April that he was willing to go to prison.
Last month, however, Mr Vernarelli's father, Roberto Vernarelli, held a news conference in which he claimed his son had not been driving the car at the time of the incident.
Mr Vernarelli snr, a retired policeman, prominent local politician and member of the right-wing La Destra party, claimed that the car had been driven by either of two Hungarians known to his son and to whom he had given a lift.
Mr Vernarelli snr furthermore said that the prosecution witness, 25-year-old Manuel Ritz, a US citizen who claims to have witnessed the incident, has already provided sworn testimony in which he says that Friedrich Vernarelli was not driving the car.
Yesterday, Mr Vernarelli jnr, who is under house arrest having been released from prison at the beginning of last month, was in court for the brief hearing.
As he was accompanied by policemen to an awaiting car, he stopped briefly, saying: "I just hope that the truth comes out in this trial and that the American witness comes here and tells the court that I was not driving the car . . .
"I think about what has happened every minute of every day . . . For the first month I was in prison, I hardly slept at all, my memories were all hazy . . . but I do recall leaning my head against the little side window of the car."
Asked yesterday whether it was true he had not been driving the car at the time, Mr Vernarelli jnr replied: "So it seems."
No members of either the Collins or Gubbins families were in court yesterday, although they were represented by lawyers Ginevra Bajno and Paolo Corrugo, who successfully applied for the right to constitute themselves as civil plaintiffs, with a view to possible damages compensation.