The funeral of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, who died last week aged 100, has been called-off due to violent clashes outside the church between anti-fascists and Nazi sympathisers. Priebke was serving a life sentence under house arrest at the time of his death for his role in the murder of 300 Italian boys in 1944. Despite local opposition to holding the funeral the government insisted that it be held. A strange Holocaust denying sect of the Catholic Church agreed to facilitate the funeral on the 70th anniversary of the round-up of Jews in Rome. The bastard is now likely to be cremated behind closed doors.

As the hearse attempted to gain entry to the church grounds antifascists blocked its path, started to kick it, and chased away the accompanying priest. Hooded fascists – in full paramilitary uniform - then broke off from their fascist salutes and attacked protesters and attempted to force through the hearse. Police then intervened using teargas and arresting over 20 people before the funeral was stopped by Priebke’s lawyer.

Priebke had lived in Argentina for over 50 years before being extradited to Italy for his role in the slaughter of over 300 Italians in 1944. He had been serving his sentence under ‘house arrest’ when he died, but had dispensation to attend church. This has outraged Rome’s Jewish community, many of who had bumped into Priebke in a local park. Priebke has never admitted any guilt for murdering scores of Italians, he claims to have following orders and that the Holocaust was just an ‘invention’.

He had been denied a funeral by the mainstream Catholic Church before being offered one by the ‘Society of Saint Pius X’ – a group of Catholics who split from the Vatican due to their opposition of modernisation of the church, and to the Vatican’s changing attitudes towards Jews. The society came to prominence in 2009 when a leading member – Bishop Richard Williamson - delivered a speech denying the Holocaust.

The authorities and surviving family members are now said to favour his cremation behind closed doors to avoid a repeat of today’s events.

It is a shame that there is not a hell for him to rot in!