- Rizieri Ongaro died after the collision with Rhys Phillips on March 8 last year
A British skier who is facing a manslaughter trial over a collision that killed an Italian ex mayor has claimed he was not speeding down the slope when the accident happened as he vowed to fight the case.
Rhys Phillips, 30, is accused of negligence after allegedly ‘ploughing into 78-year-old Rizieri Ongaro from behind’ on March 8 last year on the Fertazza slope at the Civetta ski resort in the Dolomites, according to local media reports about the accident.
Speaking to MailOnline, Phillips lawyers Ernesto Caracciolo and Aldo Bissi said their client denied any wrongdoing and stressed it was simply a tragic accident.
Mr Caracciolo added: ‘Our client is a beginner and was skiing very slowly and was wearing a helmet, he was not speeding at all because he is a novice.
‘He was skiing ahead of the victim and it was the victim who crashed into him, obviously our client is very upset by what happened but he is a good man and he intends to fight the case.
Rhys Phillips, 30, is accused of manslaughter after he ‘ploughed’ into Ongaro from behind
‘We could have plea bargained but that would have involved an admission of guilt which would have remained like a stain on him for his life and he doesn’t want that.
‘We have several witnesses who can back up our version of events and we look forward to presenting this next year in court.’
If convicted Philipps is unlikely to spend any time behind bars as he has a clean record and was not drunk or under the influence of drugs and any sentence will be suspended.
The accusation against Phillips, from Aldershot, Hampshire, is reportedly based on the violation of the rules governing skiing, ‘failing to keep the necessary distance and moderate speed due to the co-presence of other skiers on the stretch’.
Phillips, a British national currently living in Denmark, was visiting the Dolomites for a week-long tour of the slopes with his girlfriend and a group of other Danish skiers when disaster struck.
The young English skier suffered a shoulder contusion in the impact, while Ongaro’s injuries were fatal.
The Fertazza slope at the Civetta ski resort in the Dolomites (stock picture)
The trial, which kicked off on November 7 at a court in Belluno, will hear from all the witnesses requested by the parties on May 20 next year.
Among them, two eyewitnesses who were travelling on a chairlift and saw the accident from above will also be heard as well as rescuers who were the first to provide assistance.
The medical examiner, Antonello Cirnelli, will also be called into the courtroom.
Cirnelli, on behalf of the Belluno public prosecutor’s office, established that the cause of Ongaro’s death was the impact between the skiers, thus excluding the possibility of an illness as cause of death.
Ongaro, who maintained a ‘beastly physique’ that allowed him to carry his skis on his shoulders that day, died from ‘metahemorrhagic shock from post-traumatic bilateral massive thoracic hemopneuma’.
At the next hearing he will be heard in the courtroom to give his version of the events with the help of an interpreter.
