Student apologises for killing Italy policeman

AUS student on trial for killing an Italian policeman during a failed drug bust last year tearfully apologised yesterday, saying he would never forgive himself.

Finnegan Lee Elder, 20, read a statement in front of the Rome court in which he said the evening of July 26, 2019, was “the worst night of my life”, according to Italian news agencies at the hearing, which is closed to most media due to coronavirus restrictions.

Elder and friend Gabriel NataleHjorth face possible life sentences for murder.

Prosecutors say policeman Mario Cerciello Rega was killed in an unprovoked nighttime attack after he and his partner, both in plain clothes, approached the two American friends on vacation in Italy, who had earlier tried to buy drugs.

Elder has admitted to stabbing policeman Mario Cerciello Rega several times with an eight-inch combat knife, but both he and

Hjorth say they were jumped from behind by men they thought were drug dealers.

“That night was the worst night of my life and not only because I’m writing this in prison, far away from everyone and everything I love. That night was the worst night of my life because I took a man’s life, I took a husband away from his wife, I broke a bond between brothers and I took a son away from his mother. I’ll never be able to forgive myself for this.”

Cerciello’s death was frontpage news last year due to an outpouring of public sympathy for the policeman, who had just returned to work after his honeymoon.

But there was also widespread shock over leaked photos of Natale-Hjorth blindfolded and handcuffed inside a police station.

Natale-Hjorth fought with Cerciello’s partner during the attack.

Even though he did not stab Cerciello, under Italian law he faces the same charge of “voluntary homicide” with a special circumstance of killing a police officer.

Elder and Natale-Hjorth, both from San Francisco, were 19 and 18 at the time of the killing.