Man accidentally runs over 86yo dad: court

Two panicked steps on the accelerator was all it took for John Giannasca to cause his elderly father's death.

The engineer ran over his 86-year-old father Antonio Giannasca during one of their weekly visits to his mother's grave at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney's west.

The tragedy came more than two years after Giannasca, 60, was acquitted over the murder of his wife Carmel, whose body has never been found.

During his 2012 murder trial, Giannasca was accused of killing wife Carmel Giannasca hours after a young girl accused his father of sexual abuse.

Mrs Giannasca was 33 when she went missing on or around January 12, 2002 but her body has never been found.

Giannasca, who appeared in Burwood Local Court on Tuesday with his new wife, was his father's sole supporter, his lawyer said.

Facts tendered to court state that on December 28, 2014, the father and son spent time at Giannasca's mother's grave before the Tennyson Point man returned to his car.

He turned on the air-conditioning to cool the car down and waited for his father to return from the mid-summer heat.

Giannasca took off the hand brake and put his foot on the brake, according to the facts.

His father stumbled on uneven ground near the front of the car and put his hand on the bonnet to steady himself.

In a bid to get out of the Honda Accord and help his father, Giannasca took his foot off the brake.

The car rolled forward, the facts state, and when Giannasca tried to put his foot on the brake, he pushed the accelerator twice.

The car lurched forward and Giannasca's father was dragged along 12 metres and had his back wedged against a tyre.

A Triple Zero operator told Giannasca to move the car off his father but he died at the scene.

At the time there was no vehicle or pedestrian traffic in the cemetery, the facts state.

His lawyer David Giddy described the situation as tragic.

"He was debilitated by grief ... and now months later he is working his way through that," he told the court on Tuesday.

Giannasca pleaded guilty in June to negligent driving occasioning death.

According to his traffic record tendered in court, Giannasca has been charged with negligent driving twice in the past along with other traffic offences.

The court heard the engineer, described as a kind, compassionate and decent person, was engaged in important research and work in the renewable energy field.

The matter was adjourned until October.