The trial of Friedrich Vernarelli, the man accused of the manslaughter of Irish women Elizabeth Gubbins and Mary Collins in a hit-and-run incident in Rome on St Patrick’s night, 2008, may move to Hungary for a key hearing.
When the trial resumed in Rome yesterday, Judge Anna Maria Pazienza confirmed that she was granting a defence request for the procedure to enable evidence to be taken from two key Hungarian witnesses.
Throughout this trial, which opened in September last year, the Vernarelli family has claimed that Friedrich Vernarelli was not at the wheel of the Mercedes car that hit the two Irish women.
Accordingly, the defence has called on the court to hear the evidence of two Hungarians, Andras Kazma and Zolst Balogh, one of whom, it is claimed, was driving the car at the time of the fatal incident.