Two American students have been sentenced to life in prison by a Rome court for the murder of Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega. After almost 13 hour of deliberation, a jury convicted Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, of murdering Cerciello Rega, who had only just returned to duty after his honeymoon when he was stabbed to death, aged 35, on a street in central Rome in July 2019.

A state funeral was held for the officer, who prosecutor Maria Sabina Calabretta said was killed in a “disproportionate and deadly attack”. Elder looked stunned when the verdict was read out on Wednesday night. During a brief court appearance earlier on Wednesday, Elder told his lawyer “I’m stressed” before kissing a crucifix he wears on a neck chain and pointing it towards the sky. Elder’s parents were in court, as was Natale-Hjorth’s uncle.