MP JULIAN Brazier faces months of uncertainty following his part in a fatal road crash in Italy.

According to a legal expert, charges against the MP could range from careless driving to manslaughter. But it could be more than a year before Italian authorities decide on a charge.

Mr Brazier has admitted driving on the wrong side of the road when he hit a motorcyclist on a winding hillside road in Tuscany. The rider, 42-year-old Carlo Civitelli, died in Siena hospital.

Steve Uglow, reader in criminal justice at Kent University, said: "A charge could range from careless driving - a minor charge - to death by dangerous driving or even manslaughter."

Mr Uglow says that police only investigate initially, before handing over their evidence to an examining justice. "The examining justice would put together a dossier of statements from witnesses and the defendant," he said. "After many months, perhaps more than a year, there is a kind of formal charge and then a trial.

Mr Brazier has said he expects a court case to follow in one or two years but his lawyer is confident he will not have to attend. He has entered a plea of partteggiamento, which means he accepts culpability of his role in the accident, but the Italian authorities will also accept there were mitigating features.