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*Satanist band members jailed for ritual killings*

*Associated Press
Tuesday February 22, 2005*

Two members of an Italian heavy metal band called the Beasts of Satan
were today sentenced to jail for their role in three ritual murders.

Andrea Volpe and Pietro Guerrieri had confessed to roles in the 1998
killings of Chiara Marino, 19, and 16-year-old Fabio Tollis in woods
outside Milan. Volpe - considered to have been the mastermind of the
ritual killings - was sentenced to 30 years, 10 more than prosecutors
had asked for. Guerrieri was given 16 years.

Mario Maccione, who also confessed to the killings, was cleared because
he had played a secondary role. Five other members of their suspected
Satanic cult have been ordered to stand trial in June.

"Today, justice rewarded me," Michele Tollis, the father of Fabio, told
Italian television, "even if it leaves me quite bitter that our son
Fabio will not return."

Prosecutors in the northern city of Busto Arsizio said the suspects
belonged to an occult sect that carried out the January 1998 killings in
a drug-fuelled Satanic ritual in woods near Somma Lombardo, north-west
of Milan.

Marino was stabbed to death and Tollis, her boyfriend, was also killed.
They were buried next to each other. Authorities said there had been a
previous attempt to kill the two by burning them alive in a car on New
Year's Eve.

In the third murder, which happened in January 2004, Mariangela
Pezzotta, Volpe's girlfriend, was shot and then buried alive. The
Pezzotta case led authorities to the buried remains of Tollis and
Marino. The cult members also stand accused of pushing a boy to commit
suicide.

Prosecutors asked for relatively light prison terms because the suspects
had cooperated with the investigation and expressed remorse. Prosecutors
and court officials were not immediately available for comment after the
ruling.

Marino's mother expressed outrage that prosecutors had not sought life
terms. "They are murderers," Lina Marino told reporters. "It's not fair."

The verdict comes amid growing concern in Italy that young people are
turning to Satanism and the occult. Last week, a Vatican-linked
university opened a two-month course on diabolical possession and exorcism.


*Special report*
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005