Former FBI agent has theory proving Amanda Knox’s innocence

By Calvin Palmer

Amanda Knox is innocent, so says former FBI agent Steve Moore based on his years of experience with the bureau.

Moore argues that when someone’s throat is cut, as was the case with British student Meredith Kercher, blood spurts into the air. Kercher would have lost more than four pints of blood. The killer, or killers, would have been covered in her blood and their footprints would have left bloody trails of guilt.

“You cannot just scrub it off,” said Moore. “Blood is God’s way of identifying the man with the knife.”

Moore feels a great injustice has been committed and is trying to whip up counterparts in Italy to do the work to prove his theory is correct and Knox is innocent.

Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted last December for the murder of Meredith in the house in Perugia, Italy, she shared with Knox.

Meredith’s room was found to be full of full of the finger and footprints of Rudy Guede, a drifter, burglar and small-time drug dealer originally from the Ivory Coast. But there was not a single bloody footprint belonging to Knox or Sollecito.

Moore asserts it is “absolutely impossible” they could have been in the room when Meredith died.

“There are no footprints of theirs in the blood,” he said. “To believe the prosecution case, they would have had to have been floating on a magic carpet.”

Moore claims the lack of clarity in their mutual alibi is not the real issue. The onus is on the prosecution to justify its claims.

In a crime scene, Moore says, “the absence of evidence is evidence of absence” of the key suspects, and the prosecutors did not come close to putting Amanda and Raffaele in the room where Meredith died.

Moore is also scathing about the prosecutors’ “read” on the crime scene, which is contradicted by all the forensic evidence, as if a “group of libidinous adolescent boys had tried to imagine the most lascivious thing that they believed could have happened”.

Knox does not satisfy any of the criteria that might suggest she would harm, never mind kill, Meredith, according to Moore. “In the FBI, we took the view that the simplest explanation of a crime is almost always the best explanation,” he said.

He believes not only does Amanda not fit the psychological profile of a killer in any respect, but she also doesn’t fit the profile of a person capable of violence.

Guede, whose guilt is not in doubt, has already had his sentence cut in half, and it could be cut again, setting him free within a year or two. Knox’s supporters believe a deal has been struck.

Moore is quick to point out that he is not writing a book, not being paid as a consultant by the Knox camp in Seattle. Indeed, his mission to expose the faults in the trial has cost him his job with Pepperdine University. He was fired last month for refusing to drop his campaign.

Pepperdine University has an affiliated campus in Italy and Moore’s campaigning on behalf of Knox was causing political problems there.

So there you have it. The Italian prosecutors got it all wrong. The jury was hoodwinked into delivering the wrong verdict as part of a witch hunt, according to Moore.

It all sounds very plausible, just like the theories that the attacks of 9/11 were orchestrated by the CIA. But they are just that theories and devoid of hard evidence and facts.

Is Moore privy to every police report in the Kercher case? No.

Was Moore present at the crime scene shortly after the murder was committed? No

How likely is it that Moore has personal contacts with the police force in Perugia? Unlikely.

Why is Moore the only former member of the FBI to reach these startling conclusions? My guess is personal vanity and ego.

How good an agent was Moore during his time with the FBI? No one knows of his record. It could be that he was an absolute dullard but made good coffee for the rest of the team. He is on record as saying that he quit the FBI because he was tired of foreign travel. Or could it be that he quit because he was still a field agent after 25 years with bureau and had been passed over for promotion on several occasions? We just don’t know but are expected to believe that he is right where everyone else is wrong.

Why haven’t we heard from other law enforcement officers expressing the same opinions as Moore, if they are so self evident regarding Knox’s innocence? Over to you, Inspector Knacker of Scotland Yard.

We only have Moore’s version of why he was fired by Pepperdine University. What is the university’s side of the story? Could it be that Moore was falling down on the job he was employed to do?

His quote, “Blood is God’s way of identifying the man with the knife,” brings into question his credibility both regarding his theory and his abilities as an FBI agent. Perhaps God revealed Knox’s innocence to Moore in a dream. So that explains why the FBI has such a success rate in solving all of its cases.

What we have here is a man in the throes of a mid-life crisis, no longer in a job of any importance and unable to come to terms with his reduced status? What better way to get back into the spotlight, and massage his ego, than to take up this cause célèbre.

Knox is due to appeal against her conviction for murder next month, which probably explains Moore’s timely intervention.

Stefano Maffei, a University of Parma professor of criminal procedure, says the appeal court is likely to agree with the murder conviction but find that mitigating factors outweigh the aggravated ones, which leads to a one-third reduction in sentence.

According to Maffei, 18 Italian magistrates have reviewed the evidence in the Knox case and come to the same conclusion of culpability, which somehow ingrains the decision into the judiciary.

But in the light of Knox’s good behavior, and other sociological reasons, her sentence is likely to be reduced, he said.

The prosecution is also appealing that Knox’s sentence be increased from 26 years to life.

[Based on reports by the London Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.]

Knox speaks out on conduct of trial

By Calvin Palmer

Amanda Knox, speaking for the first time since she was convicted of the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher, said the 11-month trial was conducted “correctly”.

Speaking to Italian Member of Parliament Walter Verini, who was visiting her in prison, Knox said, “The trial was carried out correctly.”

“I still have faith in Italian justice,” she said. “I have a crazy urge to be free but there is only one path I have chosen for leaving here, and that is the appeal that my lawyers are preparing.”

Knox, 22, from Seattle, was convicted last week by two judges and six Italian jurors in Perugia, central Italy, of murdering 21-year-old Kercher in the cottage the two young women shared.

She was sentenced to 26 years in jail, while co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, her boyfriend at the time of the murder, received a sentence of 25 years.

The first appeal hearing is expected to be held late next year, and any criticism of the initial investigation and subsequent trial is likely to be poorly received by a judicial system which was angered by attacks from across the Atlantic.

Sen Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) said on her Web site after the guilty verdict, “I am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial.”

“The prosecution did not present enough evidence for an impartial jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Knox was guilty,” she wrote.

Knox has been moved from her old cell, which she shared with three women prisoners, to a smaller, two-bed cell equipped with two desks, two wardrobes and a television.

Her new cellmate is a fellow American, a 53-year-old woman from Louisiana who is serving a four-year sentence for drug dealing.

Knox spoke of her bitter disappointment at being found guilty of the murder, which she denies having any part in. “I thought I would be home for Christmas, but instead I have to wait,” she said.

Her  mother, Edda Mellas, is expected to visit the U.S. embassy in Rome on Friday to discuss the case with the American ambassador.

Sollecito, 25, will also appeal his conviction.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and AFP.]

Conviction of Amanda Knox represents anti-American feeling, say critics

By Calvin Palmer

The conviction of Amanda Knox for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has not gone down too well in America, with suggestions that anti-American sentiment rather than justice was at work during the trial

On ABC’s Good Morning America show, renowned criminal lawyer Ted Simon and Vanity Fair contributing editor Judy Bachrach attacked the verdict and the Italian justice system. 

Simon said the “lack of evidence is both compelling and profound”. He added that Knox was convicted of murder despite the fact that there was “no sweat, no saliva, no DNA of Amanda Knox” in Kercher’s room. 

Bachrach said, “Although constitutionally, theoretically the individual is innocent until proven guilt in reality that is not the case… If you are accused you will very likely going to be convicted if it goes far enough.”

Knox “didn’t have a chance” because “she is an outsider”. Bachrach said, “If you are an outsider, a foreigner, you don’t know a lot of famous powerful people you are sunk.” 

In a statement, Sen Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) said: “I am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial.

“The prosecution did not present enough evidence for an impartial jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms Knox was guilty. Italian jurors were not sequestered and were allowed to view highly negative news coverage about Ms Knox.

“Other flaws in the Italian justice system on display in this case included the harsh treatment of Ms Knox following her arrest; negligent handling of evidence by investigators; and pending charges of misconduct against one of the prosecutors stemming from another murder trial.”

Knox, 22, from Seattle, and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, were convicted last week of the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher from Coulsden, Surrey.

Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison. At least she can be thankful that she is not facing the death penalty. Capital punishment was abolished in Italy in 1948.

Had Knox committed the crime in Texas, Florida or a host of other states, she could well be sitting on death row. However, given that she is white and from a good family, she probably would have been given a similar sentence to the one handed down by the court in Perugia, Italy.

The thing that amazes me is the notion that America has the best judicial system in the world, maybe it is if you have money and influence. In that respect it matches the criticisms leveled at the Italian judicial system by Bachrach.

The decision reached by the Italian jury is what it is. The verdict may not be the one many Americans wished for but to criticize the Italian judicial system for reaching that decision borders on juvenile.

Critics of the verdict also appear to forget that Knox was a co-defendant. Her former Italian boyfriend Sollecito was also found guilty. Does that verdict mean the trial was also anti-Italian?

Knox’s parents are hoping Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will intervene.

Curt Knox said, “Now I do want the government involved and I would be very, very disappointed if they did not get involved.”

Looks like you are headed for another disappointment, Curt.  Your best bet is that the case goes to appeal and even then there is no guarantee that you will get the verdict you desire.

It could well be that your daughter IS guilty of the charge. Get over it.

[Based on reports by ABC News, The Canadian Press, AFP, and Corriere della Sera.]

Amanda Knox and former boyfriend found guilty of murder

By Calvin Palmer

American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito have been found guilty of the murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox, 22, was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Sollecito, 25, received a sentence of 25 years.

Kercher, of Couldsen, Surrey, was an exchange student from  Leeds University and shared a flat with Knox in the Italian city of Perugia.

When she refused to take part in a drug-fueled sex game in November 2007, she ended up having her throat cut.

Police found her semi-naked body covered by a duvet. Her bedroom door was locked but the window had been broken.

Kercher’s body showed signs of bruising, and tests revealed evidence of sexual activity shortly before her death – but a post-mortem examination could not confirm she had been raped.

At first police believed Kercher had been killed as the result of a botched burglary but further investigation revealed the room had been made to look like a burglary had taken place.

Police arrested Knox and Sollecito whom prosecutors accused of killing Kercher because she had refused to take part in an extreme sex session.

A pathologist’s report said Kercher’s death was slow and painful because despite the fact that her throat was cut, the blow did not sever her carotid artery.

Prosecutors claimed that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of the likely murder weapon – a kitchen knife found in Sollecito’s house – and that traces of Kercher’s DNA were on the blade.

Knox and Sollecito were remanded in custody shortly after the killing, when they gave conflicting statements over their whereabouts on the night of the murder.

Sollecito said he was at his flat in Perugia using his computer, and he did not remember whether Knox spent the whole night with him or just part of it.

Rudy Hermann Guede, 22, who has joint Italian and Ivory Coast nationality, was convicted last year of her murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing against his conviction.

Knox and Sollecito are also thought likely to appeal against their convictions.

[Based on reports by The Guardian and BBC News.]

Knox’s hatred of room mate triggered ‘an unstoppable crescendo of violence’

By Calvin Palmer

The hatred American Amanda Knox harbored for British exchange student and room mate Meredith Kercher led to “an unstoppable crescendo of violence” that resulted in the British girl’s murder, an Italian court heard today.

Chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini summed up the prosecution’s case in a trial that has lasted almost a year.

Knox, 22, a University of Washington student, from Seattle, and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are standing trial for the murder of 21-year-old Kercher, from Couldsen, Surrey, on the night of November 1, 2007. They both deny any wrongdoing.

Ivory Coast-born drifter Rudy Guede, 22, was convicted for his role last fall in a separate trial and sentenced to 30 years. His appeal also began this week.

Mignini argued that Knox initiated a scuffle that degenerated into a beating, sexual assault and eventual stabbing, went on to alter the crime scene to create a clumsily staged burglary and rape, then fell into a self-made trap of inconsistencies and fibs.

“The first accusers of Amanda and Raffaele were they themselves,” he said.

Mignini clearly painted Knox as the mastermind of the crime, an aggressive young woman who harbored hate for her goody-two shoes English roommate and exerted powerful influence over the other two male suspects, who were infatuated with her.

He said Knox bitterly resented the fact that Kercher had complained about her keeping a vibrator and condoms in full view in their bathroom and her habit of bringing men back to the house they shared in the medieval walled town of Perugia in Umbria.

“We don’t know what they intended to do once in the house,” he said “Perhaps there was a discussion, a fight over money or behavior that got out of control. Or perhaps after smoking hash, they decide to include Meredith in an extreme sexual game, and it was the moment for Knox to vindicate herself in a situation that bit-by-bit got more and more violent.”

Knox, dressed in her favorite red, hooded Beatles sweatshirt and jeans, grew increasingly emotional as Mignini described in detail his reconstruction of Kercher’s slaying and wept quietly twice during the course of the afternoon.

“It is Amanda who started the fight, which triggered an unstoppable crescendo of violence, and it is Amanda who plunged the knife into Meredith’s neck,” Mignini said. “It is Amanda who later covers the cadaver with a blanket — a form of pietas, of respect for the victim. An unknown male would not have any need to cover the body. As a woman, and friend, she couldn’t stand to see that nude, battered cadaver that she was responsible for.”

The three alleged killers tried to cover up the crime by smashing a window in the house with a rock in an attempt to convince investigators that the murder was committed by a lone burglar, Mignini said in his closing arguments.

The Italian police who investigated the crime scene have told the court their suspicions were aroused by the fact that glass shards lay on top of clothing lying scattered on the floor, suggesting that the window was broken after the room was ransacked, not before.

“All of this was done to channel suspicions on to a stranger,” Mr Mignini said. “The key to the mystery is in that room.”

Not only was the window visible from a nearby road, making it an odd point of entry for a burglar, but nothing in the room was stolen.

Mignini is expected to ask for lengthy prison sentences for Knox and her former lover when the court resumes. A verdict is expected in the first week of December. If convicted by a panel of two judges and six jurors, the pair could face life imprisonment.

Knox’s laywer Carlo Dalla Vedova dismissed Mignini’s closing argument.

“This was a very suggestive presentation, but this is the court of assize, so you need actual proof to condemn someone,” said Carlo Dalla Vedova.

When asked about Knox’s emotional response during Mignini’s dramatic reconstruction of the crime, Dalla Vedova said “It’s two years she has been in prison, of course it is trying for her.”

Knox’s stepfather, Chris Mellas, was present in the courtroom, but had no comment.

Co-prosecutor Manuela Comodi will present summations of the forensic evidence in court tomorrow.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and Seattle Post Intelligencer.]

Guede tells court of ‘piercing scream’ after Knox and Kercher argued

By Calvin Palmer

Rudy Guede, convicted last year of killing British exchange student Meredith Kercher, today addressed a court in Italy as he launched his appeal against his 30-year prison sentence.

Guede, 22, told the court in Perugia he heard Kercher and Amanda Knox, her American room-mate, arguing over money in the bathroom of the house that they shared. Minutes later he heard a “piercing scream”.

The court is expected to reach a verdict on Knox, 22, of Seattle, and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 26, early next month. They both deny any wrongdoing.

Guede was born in the Ivory Coast but emigrated to Italy as a child and was described as a drifter at his fast-track trial.

He told the court he went to the Leeds University student’s house on the evening of November 1, 2007, but started to feel queasy, having eaten a kebab the night before. He went to the bathroom and started listening to his iPod. Over the sound of the music he heard an argument between Kercher and Knox.

“I heard Meredith’s and Amanda’s voices, arguing about some money missing,” he said. “I was listening to music but halfway through the third track I heard a piercing scream.”

He said he rushed into Kercher’s bedroom where he saw a man, whom he later suggested could have been Sollecito, who tried to stab him with a knife.

Staggering back into the hallway, Guede said, “The man said: ‘Let’s go. There’s a black guy in the house.’”

Guede said he heard people leaving the house and looked out of the window where he saw a silhouette he later identified as Knox.

Knox maintains she spent the night of the murder at Sollecito’s house elsewhere in Perugia.

Sollecito has said he home working at his computer that night. He said he does not remember if Knox spent the whole night with him or just part of it.

Guede told the court he tried to save the life of Kercher, who was by now lying in a pool of blood with her throat cut. He tried to stem the flow of blood with towels, but then panicked and left the house.

“Seeing Meredith in these terms was agonizing,” he said. “She was dying. She tried to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand her. I held her hand, I asked her what had happened. … In that moment, I entered into a state of shock”.

He fled the house and a few days later left the country. He was arrested on a train in Germany and extradited back to Italy.

“I want to let the Kercher family know that I did not kill or rape their daughter,” he said. “I was not the one who took her life.”

The prosecution claims that during a group sex game, Sollecito held the Briton by the shoulders while Miss Knox threatened her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her. Knox then allegedly stabbed Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, in the throat.

Guede became a suspect after his fingerprint was found in bloodstains on Kercher’s pillow, and other DNA traces were recovered on her body and in the lavatory bowl.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and Associated Press.]

Amanda Knox takes the stand and protests her innocence

By Calvin Palmer

Amanda Knox gave evidence at her trial today during which she said she smoked marijuana and had sex with her boyfriend on the night British exchange student Meredith Kercher was murdered. She also claimed she was beaten by Italian police and forced into making false statements.

Knox, 21, from Seattle, and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are standing trial for the murder and sexual assault of Kercher. Both deny any wrongdoing.

Dressed in a white shirt and pale ­trousers, Knox protested her innocence and said she was nowhere near the hillside cottage she shared with Kercher when the British girl was murdered on the night of November 1, 2007.

Knox told the court in Perugia, central Italy, she spent the evening with her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. After dinner, they went up to the bedroom.

“I sat on the bed, he sat at his desk, he prepared the joint and then we smoked it together,” Knox said.

“First we made love, then we fell asleep.”

The prosecution alleges that in a sex game that went wrong, Sollecito held down Kercher while a a third defendant, Rudy Guede, sexually assaulted her and Miss Knox stabbed her three times in the neck.

Guede, 22, originally from the Ivory Coast, was found guilty of being involved in the murder in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Knox told the court of the last time she saw Kercher hours before the murder. They had talked about the Halloween party of the night before and Knox noticed Kercher still had traces of makeup on her face, having dressed up as a vampire.

Knox then had something to eat with her boyfriend while Kercher stayed in her bedroom.

“She left her room, said ‘bye,’ walked out the door,” Knox said. “That was the last time I saw her.”

The next morning Knox and her boyfriend went to the cottage and she thought it “strange’ that the front door was open.

“I called ‘Is anyone there?’ No one answered. I went to my room and changed, went to the bathroom and saw spots of blood there.

“I had a shower and on the way back to my room I saw blood on floor. I thought: ‘Hmm, strange.’

“I put on my clothes in my room, then I went to the other bathroom to brush my hair. I saw traces of feces in the toilet,” which she said she found disgusting.

“I called Meredith, who didn’t answer.”

She then called one of her two Italian flatmates, Filomena Romanelli, who returned to the house and found her window had been broken in an apparent burglary.

“We found Meredith’s door was locked,” said Miss Knox. “Filomena was saying ‘Mamma mia, it’s never locked!’. I said that sometimes Meredith locked it when she had a shower or when she went to England.”

A male friend broke down the door and found Miss Kercher’s half-naked body lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood.

“I heard there was a body in there. There was lots of confusion,” she said. “I was in shock. I couldn’t believe what had happened, couldn’t accept it.”

She repeated accusations that police hit her on the back of the head twice and placed her under enormous pressure to blame a Congolese barman, Patrick Lumumba, for the murder.

“The police called me a stupid liar who was trying to protect someone,” she told the court. “I was very scared, the police were treating me badly and I didn’t know why.”

Asked if she had been hit during her interrogation, she showed how she had been cuffed on the back on the head twice by a police officer. Perugia police have denied mistreating her.

Knox said she had named Patrick Lumumba “under the amount of pressure of everyone yelling at me and telling me they would put me in prison for protecting someone”.

Police had seized on a text message containing the English phrase, “See you later” Knox sent on the day of the murder to Lumumba, who was employing her as a bar worker. “They [the police] put the ­telephone in front of my face, told me to look at the message and said ‘you were going to meet someone’,” said Knox.

She said an interpreter at the interrogation suggested she was suffering from memory loss due to trauma. “In my ­confusion I started to imagine I was traumatised as they said,” she said.

Lumumba was briefly jailed but then found to have had nothing to do with the crime and is seeking defamation damages from Miss Knox.

Knox’s lawyers, Luciano Ghirga and Carlo dalla Vedova, then took over ­proceedings, with a seemingly well- rehearsed cross-examination designed to counter, one by one, the doubts raised about Knox’s character during the trial.

Knox spoke in Italian and seemed more at ease.

Asked why she repeatedly behaved strangely in the presence of police, once performing cartwheels while awaiting questioning, Knox said: “It was a way to release tension.”

Her much quoted nickname Foxy Knoxy was because of her skills as a defender in her school football team, she said.

She had written about her seven lovers in her prison diary only after she was mistakenly told she was HIV positive ­following a prison blood test.

A suspicious mark seen on her neck after the murder was merely “a hickey from Raffaele”, Knox said, laughing.

There will be a two month break in the trial over the summer and it is expected to last at least until the autumn.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.]

Knox covers face as murder scene video shown in court

By Calvin Palmer

Amanda Knox, the American accused of murdering British student Meredith Kercher, covered her face with her hands as video footage of the murder scene was shown in court today.

Knox, 21, from Seattle, and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are standing trial for the murder and sexual assault of Kercher. Both deny any wrongdoing.

Kercher’s body was found on November 2, 2007 in the apartment she shared with Knox. Prosecutors allege she was killed during what began as a sex game, with Sollecito holding her by the shoulders from behind while Knox touched her with the point of a knife.

Prosecutors have alleged that a third man, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, tried to sexually assault Kercher and then Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat. Guede was convicted of the murder in a separate trial in October last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

As the police video began with exterior scenes of the house in Perugia, Italy, Knox shared with Kercher, the American student exchanged grins with Sollecito, seated a few yards away, mouthed a message to him and chewed gum.

When the footage turned to Kercher’s bedroom — showing the victim’s bloodied face, with her eyes open, and a foot sticking out from a duvet on the bloodstained floor — Knox frowned and looked away and then put her hands over her face, keeping her head down but occasionally peeping through her fingers at the screen. Sollecito continued to stare at the footage with no expression.

The video, shot on the day Kercher’s body was discovered, showed Kercher’s bra on the bedroom floor, and blood on the bedroom door handle as well as on the tap of the adjoining bathroom.

The prosecution claims the torn clasp of the bra has Sollecito’s DNA on it and Knox’s DNA is mixed with Kercher’s in the bloodstains on the bathroom tap.

It also claims Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife, believed to be the murder weapon, found at Sollecito’s flat. The knife had been cleaned with bleach but had traces of Kercher’s DNA on the tip.

Prosecutors say Knox’s footprint was in the blood beneath Kercher’s body.

The video showed a handprint in blood on the wall of Kercher’s bedroom, later identified as that of Guede. His handprint was also found on Kercher’s pillow.

The footage showed a large stone under a desk in the bedroom of Filomena Romanelli, one of two Italian women who shared the cottage with Knox and Kercher.

The defense says that the stone, which was used to break a window, is proof that Kercher was killed by a lone burglar. The prosecution argues Knox and Sollecito broke the window in a clumsy attempt to simulate a break-in.

Forensic scientists say that only one of Ms Knox’s fingerprints – on a glass in the kitchen – was found at the cottage even though she lived there. Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor, said that this was because the cottage was cleaned up after the crime.

Reporters were asked by the judge to leave the court at the point where the video showed the duvet being pulled back to reveal Kercher’s bruised and naked corpse.

Earlier Alberto Intini, the head of the Italian police forensic science unit, rejected allegations by the defense that DNA, fingerprint and footprint evidence should be discounted because the scene of the crime was contaminated.

Intini said that although “total elimination of contamination” was impossible, the forensic scientists who entered the cottage in Perugia where Ms Kercher was murdered in November 2007 had taken precautions to reduce it to a minimum.

The Italian police’s forensic science unit had more than 100 years of experience, he said. Its modus operandi was less rigid than in Anglo-Saxon countries, but internationally recognized rules of police procedure were observed.

“DNA doesn’t fly, like pollen or hair, or get thrown upon things here and there,” Intini said. “Even if in theory contamination can never be ruled out, it is not easy for it to happen, and there must be direct contact.”

Intini said a Nike trainer shoe print in Kercher’s blood was compatible with shoes owned by Sollecito but agreed, when cross-examined by the defense, the print was also compativle with shoes owned by Guede.

A shoebox for the shoes was found in Guede’s flat, though the shoes themselves have not been traced.

Intini said that persistent allegations by defense lawyers that the murder scene had been contaminated because objects such as Kercher’s mattress and wardrobe doors had been moved between the first inspection of the cottage on November 2, 2007 and the second on December 18 were misplaced because moving objects was normal practice.

[Based on reports by The Times and Associated Press.]

Convicted killer Guede refuses to testify at Amanda Knox trial

By Calvin Palmer

Rudy Guede, the 21-year-old Ivory Coast national convicted last October of the murder and sexual assault of British student Meredith Kercher, took the witness stand today in the trial of American Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Guede, who is appealing his conviction, appeared tense and did not look at Knox and Sollecito as he was escorted by prison guards into the court in Perugia, Italy.

He refused to answer questions, as is his right under Italian law since he has been convicted.

“I would like to exercise my right not to respond,” he said in a low voice.

Outside the court his lawyer, Valter Biscotti, said Guede will eventually tell his story on the stand but it will be in testimony given during his appeal later this year.

Biscotti said Guede was drafting a letter to explain his decision to remain silent.

“He has nothing to hide,” Biscotti said. “But he felt, ‘well, first the prosecutor calls me a liar, then he wants me to testify as a witness?’ ”

Guede has acknowledged being in Kercher’s apartment when the Briton was attacked, but said he tried to rescue her before getting scared and fleeing the scene.

Knox, 21, and Sollecito, 25, are accused of murder and sexual assault. Both deny the charges.

The court also heard testimony today from medical examiner Vincenza Liviero in camera, to comply with a request from Kercher’s family to preserve her dignity and memory.

Knox kept her head down as graphic images from Kercher’s autopsy were once again shown in court, according to prosecutor Giuliano Mignini.

Outside the court Liviero told reporters: “It was an action carried out by more than two hands, and there was sexual violence.”

“There were so many wounds, caused by a knife and caused by hands,” Kercher’s lawyer Francesco Maresca said. “The only way they could have been from one person is if that person had three or four hands.”

Gynecologist and prosecution witness Mauro Marchionni also testified that the bruises on Kercher’s body suggested nonconsensual sex, Maresca said.

Knox’s defense attorney Luciano Ghirga, speaking outside the court, said he believed all of expert’s testimony was “open to interpretation”.

“It is all contestable, and we will show that when we bring our own medical experts,” he said.

Kercher, a 21-year-old student from Leeds University in England, was sharing a cottage with Knox and two Italian women when she was found stabbed to death in the house on November 2, 2007.

Prosecutors allege Kercher was killed during what began as a sex game, with Sollecito holding her by the shoulders from behind while Knox touched her with the point of a knife. Prosecutors say Guede tried to sexually assault Kercher and then Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat.

The trial will continue after a two-week recess for Easter.

[Based on reports by the Associated Press and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.]

Knox trial told injuries prove Kercher was attacked by more than one person

By Calvin Palmer

A police pathologist testified today that the multiple injuries suffered by British student Meredith Kercher prove that she was attacked by more than one person.

The jury at the court in Perugia, Italy, was shown graphic photographs and video footage of the autopsy conducted by police pathologist Dr Luca Lalli on Kercher’s body.

American Amanda Knox, 21, and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are standing trial for the murder and sexual assault of Kercher. Both deny the charges.

Chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said the wounds identified by Lalli backed up the prosecution case that Kercher was killed after refusing to take part in a drug-fuelled sex game in which Knox and Sollecito took part with Rudy Guede, 21, an Ivory Coast immigrant who was given a 30-year prison sentence for the crime last October.

Defense lawyers claim Kercher was attacked by a lone burglar – Guede.

Mignini said Lalli’s evidence showed Kercher was assaulted by three people. “One forced her head back, one stabbed her in the throat and the third strangled her,” he told The Times outside the court.

Lalli told the court that he found 23 cuts and bruises on Kercher’s body. He said there was evidence of “non consensual” sexual activity, though not sexual violence.

Prosecutors said that what had occurred amounted to sexual intercourse under threat.

Lawyers at the court session, which was held in camera, said that Knox refused to look at the autopsy footage, keeping her head down and at times burying it in her folded arms on the table in front of her. Sollecito occasionally glanced at the screen in the courtroom.

Francesco Maresca, the lawyer for the Kercher family, asked for the media to be excluded from the hearing to “preserve Meredith’s memory and dignity”. He said the testimony and images would be very traumatic for relatives.

Kercher, 21, was found semi-naked under a duvet with her throat cut in her bedroom on the morning of 2 November 2007 at the whitewashed hillside cottage she shared with Knox and two Italian women.

Knox at first accused Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese barman, of the murder and admitted that she was present, but later withdrew this statement. Lumumba is suing her for defamation.

When the court returned to open session, Carlo Maria Scotto di Rinaldi, the owner of a lingerie shop, testified that he saw Knox buying “sexy underwear” with Sollecito the day after Kercher was killed. He said the pair were kissing and cuddling and he heard them talking about having “hot sex”.

Knox, in a striped colored sweater, sat stony-faced during the testimony.

Guede, who is appealing against his sentence, is due to give evidence tomorrow. He is expected to claim that witnesses saw him talking to Kercher in a nightclub the evening before the murder, although Kercher’s British female friends have all testified that she did not speak to any black man at the club.

Guede’s version is that he had a date with Kercher on 1 November, but that they failed to have full sexual relations. He claims she was murdered while he was in the bathroom with stomach pains, by a man “resembling” Sollecito, and that he saw and heard Knox at the door of the house.

The court has so far heard from 40 witnesses out of a scheduled 250. Hearings have been scheduled until June, and are expected to resume after the summer recess, with a verdict in the autumn.

[Based on a report by The Times.]