ROME -- A man who was convicted for the premeditated murder of his wife and two children, the youngest only 20 months old, was on Monday sentenced to life imprisonment, court officials said.

 Carlo Lissi, 34, confessed to having killed his wife Maria Cristina Omes in June 2014 after an "intimate moment" together on the sofa, whilst the children were sleeping. In front of the courtroom he recalled her shouts for help, heard by a neighbour, and her last words, "Carlo, Carlo, why are you doing this to me?"

 After having killed her with a knife he recounts going up to his children Giulia and Gabriele, of five years and 20 months respectively, and slitting their throats whilst they slept. "I didn't want them to suffer without their mother and father," he told the court, "because I loved them too much."

 In a subsequent attempt to create an alibi, he went out to a pub to watch Italy's opening World Cup match with friends, in which they beat England. Upon return he tells of trying to make the scene look like an armed burglary, but he was soon discovered. "I didn't understand what I was doing, I was going crazy," he said during the trial.

 Maria Omes' mother, the children's grandmother, attended the trial on Monday. "I am satisfied with the sentence," she said. "He was evil towards those who loved him." The family lived in Motta Visconti near Pavia.   ft