Italy satanic murder trial opens

The trial of eight young members of a group calling itself the "Beasts of Satan" has opened in Italy.

The group - seven men and one woman - face charges of involvement in the murder of three friends and the death by suicide of a fourth.

Claims by members of the group that they were acting in the name of Satan have shocked the Catholic country.

The murders appeared to have been part of a drug-fuelled Satanic ritual involving sex and heavy metal music.

The affair was exposed last year when the body of the most recent victim - 27-year-old Mariangela Pezzotta, killed in January 2004 - was discovered in a forest outside the sleepy commuter village of Busto Arsizio in northern Italy.

'Seeking truth'

She had been engaged to the leader of the group, Andrea Volpe, who attended court with his head hooded.

The discovery of her body led investigators to those of two young people who had disappeared in 1998 - a 19-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy.

They had been last seen in June of that year coming out of a Milan bar frequented by heavy metal fans.

The father of the murdered boy, Michele Tollis, said outside the court that he wanted to know the truth about what had happened to his son.

"I want the court to remember what our family has gone through. I am seeking absolute justice: that's what I'm asking for," he told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The eight will also be questioned about the suicide of another young woman, who died whilst drunk and drugged at the wheel of her car as it reached speeds if 110mph (180k/ph).