A COURT in Rome has ruled that Friedrich Vernarelli (31), from Rome, who is accused of killing two Irish women in a hit-and-run incident in the city on St Patrick's night, is too "irresponsible" and "immature" to be granted house arrest rather than his current prison detention.
Vernarelli is charged with the manslaughter of Elizabeth Gubbins (27) from Kildare and Mary Collins (29) from Limerick in the early hours of the morning of March 18th. He knocked down both women on a pedestrian crossing on the Lungotevere road beside the Tiber and near Castel Sant'Angelo.
Vernarelli failed to stop but was later arrested when he crashed into a number of parked cars. Two days later he was charged with manslaughter, failure to offer assistance and drunken driving and was sent to prison to await trial in Rome's Regina Coeli.
At a court hearing on April 1st, Vernarelli's defence lawyer failed to have that "preventive detention" modified to house arrest.
In their written motivazione (explanation for the ruling), released yesterday, the judges explain why they turned down the request for house arrest.
"Although he is 31-years-old, he has shown that he has an immature, reckless and irresponsible personality with no respect for the observance of rules." In short, they conclude there is a real danger that Vernarelli might repeat his offence and for that reason he should remain in detention.
The judges suggest that such was Vernarelli's drunken state and consequent incapacity to drive that he might have provoked "even more tragic consequences", after the fatal incident when he crashed into a number of parked cars.
The judges at the Tribunale di Riesame also took into consideration the fact that Vernarelli had already twice had his licence suspended - in November 2000 for driving at 105km/h in an urban area where the speed limit was 50km/h, and in March 2005 for using a bus lane and then overtaking cars which were stopped at traffic lights.
"Such precedents denote a total incapacity to realise the danger of such situations and suggest the even more dangerous belief that, thanks to his ability, he can drive with total disregard for the rules."
As for the Vernarelli defence argument that he had not been driving the car at the time of the incident, the judges point out that Vernarelli himself admitted to state prosecutors, in response to "precise and repeated" questions, that he had been driving the car.
The judges also note that Vernarelli "at no time during his interrogations expressed words of sincere regret".