PRINCE Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, the gaffe-prone heir to the Italian throne, has compounded his troubles by admitting the manslaughter of a German man in 1978 and boasting that he “got off”.

The prince is already under investigation on charges involving illegal gambling, prostitution and corruption, which he denies. He left Italy aged 9 when the monarchy was abolished after the Second World War because of its close links with Fascism and returned three years ago from exile in Switzerland on condition that he did not take part in politics or claim former royal palaces and the crown jewels.

He was arrested in June after a two year investigation and accused of using his influence to lubricate business deals involving illegal gambling machines and the procurement of Eastern European prostitutes.

He was remanded in custody and placed under house arrest. He is now free pending charges but not allowed to leave Italy. It has emerged that while in prison at Potenza in southern Italy his conversations with other detainees were bugged by investigating magistrates, including one in which he related in detail an incident in August 1978 off the island of Cavallo, near Corsica, when he boarded a yacht and shot Dirk Hamer, 19, who was sleeping on the deck of another yacht nearby.Herr Hamer died of his wounds in hospital five months later and Vittorio Emanuele was charged in Paris in October 1989 with manslaughter and possession of an offensive weapon.

He was acquitted of the fatal wounding in November 1991 and convicted only of unauthorised possession of a rifle.

At the trial, Vittorio Emanuele said that he boarded the boat because his yacht’s rubber dinghy had been stolen, and fired in panic when passengers on the other yacht woke up. In his conversations in prison, however, the prince told a fellow inmate: “I was in the wrong, but I put one over on those French judges.” He said sarcastically that the judges were “exceptional . . . they called twenty witnesses and the prosecution demanded five and a half years, but I was certain I would win”.

PRINCE'S GAFFES

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