Amanda Knox too scared to face retrial, says man she accused of killing Meredith Kercher

 
Court date: Amanda Knox
Tom Kington30 September 2013

Amanda Knox was accused today of being too afraid to return to Italy to face a retrial over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

The claim was made by Patrick Lumumba, the former barman who Knox had falsely accused of taking part in the killing in Italy in 2007.

And Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the family of Ms Kercher, said Knox was “talking too much”, while her “continual attitude” in playing the victim was “inappropriate”.

Outside court in Florence before the hearing began today, Mr Lumumba, who is appearing as a civil plaintiff, said: “Knox is afraid.” The judge rejected a request by Knox’s lawyers to exclude him from the hearing.

Knox, 26, who insists she is innocent, has said she will not travel from Seattle for the trial. Under Italian law she does not have to. Ms Kercher, 21, of Coulsdon, was found dead in a flat she shared with Knox, a fellow exchange student, in Perugia. She had been stabbed repeatedly and prosecutors claimed she had died in a sex game that went wrong.

Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, her boyfriend at the time, were found guilty in 2009 but acquitted on ap-peal in 2011. In March this year, Italy’s supreme court decided the acquittal was flawed and ordered a retrial.

Rudy Guede, 26, of Ivory Coast, was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 years.

Sollecito, 29, an Italian IT graduate, was absent from court today as he was on holiday in the Caribbean.

Lawyers called for new tests on evidence, including a knife said to have been the murder weapon.

Luca Maori, representing Sollecito, asked the court to examine a stain on Ms Kercher’s pillow, allegedly semen, that he said was made on the night of the murder, as it bore the imprint of Guede’s shoe. He requested tests on a rock used to break a window in Ms Kercher’s home. Prosecutors have said this was part of a fake break-in staged by Knox and Sollecito to allay suspicions. The defence claims it was Guede’s way of gaining entry. Carlo Dalla Vedova, for Knox, warned the legal process was taking so long she “could be on trial for life”.

Giulia Bongiorno, for Sollecito, said the room Ms Kercher was found in contained no traces of Knox and one of Sollecito, found on a bra strap belonging to the victim weeks after the killing

She called the case a “media trial ... many witnesses have said that much of the information they had came from TV or cellmates.” In a letter to the court, the Kercher family said they were not able to be at the hearing on health grounds. The trial continues.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT