PERUGIA, Italy - An American student has accused a Congolese pub owner of knifing her British roommate to death, saying she covered her ears to drown out the screams, according to a judge's ruling Friday ordering the woman, her Italian boyfriend and the pub owner kept in jail.

The judge said Amanda Marie Knox of Seattle was hazy about the events from smoking hashish before the slaying and that the murder weapon was a knife that belonged to Knox's boyfriend.

Knox, 20, Raffaele Sollecito, 23, and Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, 38, have been detained since Tuesday as suspects in the sexual assault and killing of Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found dead Nov. 2. All three deny involvement in the death, their lawyers say.

No charges have been filed, but Judge Claudia Matteini ruled there were "serious indications of guilt" that warranted keeping the three in jail for up to a year while the investigation continues.

The 19-page ruling said that Knox, in her meetings with prosecutors, accused Lumumba of killing Kercher.

Knox has "confused memories, since she had taken hashish in the afternoon," the ruling read. But it said she told prosecutors Lumumba "had a crush" on her roommate and he and the victim had gone into a bedroom to have sex.

"She added that she could not remember if (Meredith) had been previously threatened but that it was Patrick who killed her," the ruling read. "She made clear that in those moments ... she heard Meredith scream so much that she, being scared, covered her ears."...

...Under Italian law, suspects can be held without charge if a judge rules there is enough evidence to jail them and there is a chance they might flee, repeat the crime or tamper with evidence. Prosecutors may later seek to indict the suspects and put them on trial.

The judge said in her ruling that the suspects might try to flee Italy if released.

"They could easily leave the territory of the state to escape the investigation," the judge wrote, noting that Lumumba is from Congo, Knox is American and Sollecito could enlist his girlfriend's help to flee...

...The judge said it was not yet clear who inflicted the fatal wound, but her ruling said Sollecito's footprints were found in Kercher's room and identified the murder weapon as a knife with a 3.3-inch-long blade that the Italian usually had with him.

In her reconstruction of the incident, the judge said Knox, who worked for Lumumba at his Perugia bar, let the two men into the apartment with her keys.

"Then something went wrong," Matteini wrote. "The two (men) demanded some kind of sexual act, which (Kercher) refused to do. She was then threatened with a knife, which Sollecito always carried with him, and with which Meredith was stabbed in the neck."

Another of Sollecito's attorneys, Luca Maori, said he planned to appeal the decision. "We didn't expect it," he said.

Perugia, a city of 150,000 people about 105 miles north of Rome, is home to two major universities. The University of Perugia has an enrollment of 20,000 and the University for Foreigners has a few thousand students.

Knox, who was studying Italian while in Perugia, is described by people who knew her in Seattle as a bright, amiable student. She made the dean's list last spring at the University of Washington.

Knox's mother and father, who are divorced, have traveled to Perugia, but they were not expected to be able to speak with their daughter until Saturday, said Mike James, head of the Seattle-Perugia Sister City Association.

"Events that have unfolded in Perugia, Italy, over the last few days regarding our daughter, Amanda, have shocked and devastated our family," the family said in a statement. "We love our daughter very much and certainly stand by her through this ordeal. We know she is probably frightened and upset about what has happened, and needs all the support her family can give her."...

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

Extracts from the official judge's report on the murder of Meredith Kercher, obtained by the Telegraph


"On 2 November 2007 at 12.35pm persons from the Postal Police of Perugia went to Via della Pergola 7 in order to track down Romanelli Filomena, since in the same morning Mrs Lana Elisabetta had found on the lawn of the garden attached to her house, in Perugia, Via Sperandio 5b, two mobile phones of which one had the sim card of Vodafone 348 467 3711, belonging to the same Romanelli.

Upon reaching the destination the agents found outside the building on Via Della Pergola 7 two youths, identified as KNOX Amanda Marie, who lived at that address, and SOLLECITO Raffaele, who said they were waiting for the Carabinieri military police, called because on that morning they became aware of a window with the glass broken and had suspected a theft.

In the meantime, at 1pm, arrived Romanellli, the housemate of Knox who verified that nothing had been taken from the apartment.

In the course of the search it was ascertained that the door of the room which was used by Meredith Kercher, the other girl living in the apartment, was closed and locked and it was decided therefore to break down the door because Romanelli said it was strange that her friend Kercher could have both her telephones switched off, having lately used also the phone with the sim card stated [of Romanelli], and that the door should be closed.

With the door opened there was a chilling scene in so far as the room was found in disorder with blood stains everywhere, on the ground and on the walls, and also under the duvet of the bed a foot could be seen.

The agents, in order to avoid any pollution of the crime scene, stopped everyone from entering the room.

The girl, found dead with a blow to her neck with a sharp weapon, was identified as Meredith Kercher, an English student in Italy from September and enrolled on the Erasmus scheme and at the University of Perugia.

From the first medical examination of the corpse by the pathologist, Dr Luca Lalli, it has been established that the death occurred at 11pm at the earliest and at the latest one hour after with the scope of a time frame between 10pm and midnight on the day 1 November 2007.

To this conclusion it can be added the supposition of a dinner eaten at 9pm, in reality the events show that the hour could certainly be predicted, according to what PURTON Sophie said on 2 November 2007, that at 9pm the dinner was already finished and that Meredith was already on her way home.

As for the cause of death, the verdict reached is that was caused by a haemorrhage from a neck wound after the blow of a sharp and pointed weapon.

From reading the first summary of Dr Lalli's report, deposited at the court on November 8 2007, after the autopsy on the corpse of Meredith Kercher, it emerges that the wound had not hit the carotide artery so the death was preceded by a relatively slow agony, circumstances which allow use to date back the time of the criminal act to between 21.30pm and 11.30pm on the day of November 1 2007, a timetable which tallies with the consumption of dinner in an hour before 9pm.

In the course of the investigation many youths were questioned which Meredith had the opportunity of knowing and spending time with in her time in Perugia and nothing in particular emerged about her private life except that for around three weeks she had had a sentimental attachment with SILENZI Giacomo, one of the four boys who lived in the apartment on the ground floor of the building at Via della Pergola 7, the others being Marzan Marco, Bonassi Stefano and Luciani Riccardo.

These boys, when interviewed, said they had all left Perugia between Saturday and Monday to return to their respective places of residence. Marzan Marco, Bonassi Stefano and Silenzi Giacomo at Porto San Giorgio and Luciani Riccardo to Bologna. Romanelli Filomena, when first interviewed, on November 2 2007, said she was living in the apartment on the second floor of the building in via Pergola 7 with Laura Mezzetti, Knox Amanda and Meredith Kercher.

Romanelli had above all ties with Laura Mezzetti also because of shared interests, while the two foreign girls were close and had similar daily habits in that both were students who usually went together to the university and had the same circle of friends.

She pointed out in successive interviews, on November 7 2007, that Meredith had never let any man into her bedroom except for Silenzi Giacomo, her boyfriend.

The attention of the investigators centred, however, on Knox Amanda and her boyfriend, Sollecito Raffaele.

In the first place, when it comes to these two, it has been shown that despite their affirmations to the Postal Police, it is not true that they had called 112 for the intervention of the Carabinieri military police, thinking that they had suffered a blow.

In fact, from our investigation it emerged that the Postal Police arrived at 12.35 while the call to 112 came at 12.51 and 12.54, circumstances that suggest a conduct that they wished it to be thought they had been surprised outside the building where the homicide was carried out.

They wanted to justify their presence outside, considering the conditions in which they found the apartment, above all because of the state of the blood stains on the floor and the wall."

Knox Amanda was heard for the first time on 2 November 2007 and on that occasion said she had seen Meredith at 1pm at the apartment that the aforementioned occupied, where she found her together with her boyfriend Sollecito Raffaele, and that she saw her leave at around 1500 to 1600 but did not know where she was going, and that she stayed with Sollecito until 1700, and that they went to his apartment, where they spent the whole night.

And that she returned to the apartment in Via della Pergola 7 at 1100 on the successive morning and had found the door open, that she tried to call the housemates but had no response, and that she was in one of the two bathrooms when she found traces of blood which she did not worry about cleaning, and to have noticed that in the other bathroom the water was full of faeces, and that she was astonished by did not try to clean it, and that she left the apartment at 11.30, closing the front door and locking it, and that she went back to Sollecito's apartment […]

And that she had tried to contact Meredith but without any result, and that she went back to the apartment in Via della Pergola in the company of Sollecito and that she noticed that the glass of a window was broken, and that she discovered the door of the room occupied by Meredith was locked and that she decided to call the Carabinieri after Sollecito called his sister to ask what they should do.

On the same date, Sollecito Raffaele was interview, who completely confirmed Knox's statement with the only difference being that he found the water in the toilet clean, instead of what the girl had said.

However, when the Carabinieri arrived the water was found to be still dirty with faeces.

On November 5 2007, at 22.40, Sollecito Raffaele was interviewed again, and he changed his version of events, saying that on the evening of November 1, after Meredith left the house, he was with Knox Amanda until 1800 when they had both left the apartment to go into the centre, around 2030 to 2100.

Knox left him, saying to him that she would go to the pub Le Chic to meet friends while he returned to his house, where he received a phone call from his father on his fixed line at 2300, and that he was using his computer for two hours while smoking a joint, and that the girl returned around 1am and that they both work up at 1000 when Amanda left the house to return to Via della Pergola.

He retracted his previous statement and justified his conduct by say that it was Knox who convinced him to give a false version of events.

From her testimony Knox Amanda, on 6 November 2007, first at 01.45 and then at 05.45 told the investigating magistrate that on Thursday 1 November, at 20.30, while she found herself at the home of Sollecito Raffaele, received a message from her own mobile phone sent from Patrick, the owner of the Le Chic pub, where she was working, in which the aforementioned told her that on that night the pub would be closed and therefore she should not come to work, the aforementioned responded See You Later.

Then left the house telling Sollecito that she was going to work, while, on the contrary, she was at the basketball court of Piazza Grimana.

There she met Patrick with whom she went to the apartment at Via Pergola where she does not remember if Meredith was already there or whether she joined them slightly later, adding, however, that despite her confused recollection because she had smoked hashish, Patrick went off with Meredith, about which she was vague, into the bedroom where they had sex and that she does not remember if Meredith was threatened first but said it was Patrick that killed her, saying that in that moment she did not know how to put into words that she heard Meredith scream out loudly and that, disturbed, she put her fingers in her ears, imagining what could have happened.

She also said that she was not sure whether Sollecito Raffaele was present but the following morning she found herself in his house in his bed.

She later confirmed the statements she gave about her activity from 1000 in the morning, the moment when she woke up, until the arrival of the Postal Police.

It was in this moment that Knox Amanda and Sollecito Raffaele lost the appearance that they were persons informed about the facts and became suspects themselves.

And it should be noted that on November 6 a pair of Nike size 42 ½ gymnastic shoes and a black flick knife 8.5cm long and 2cm wide were seized from the ownership of Sollecito Raffaele.

The results of a first check on the place of the murder found the trace of a footprint, verification of which shows a clear compatibility with the imprint of the shoes of Sollecito.

In fact, the checks by the forensic police, under the duvet that covered the body of Meredith show three footprints of which one, the only one which it was possible to analyze because of the others where indefinite, shows itself to be compatible in shape and dimensions with the sole of the shoe taken from Sollecito Raffaele.

Clearly it is possible to contest that Sollecito Raffaele, in the audience with judge, affirmed that he passed the entire night between November 1 and 2 with Knox Amanda.[…]

The presence of Sollecito in Meredith's room can be confirmed by the footprint found underneath the duvet which her body was covered with. […]

This objective fact cannot but represent a grave indication of guilt on the part of Sollecito Raffaele which is deepened further if combined with the removal from his person of a flick knife with an 8.5cm blade, defined by the pathologist as compatible with the possible murder weapon.

The suspect affirmed in the audience with the judge to convalidate the arrest that he had carried a knife with him by habit since he was 13-years-old, and in fact the knife had become an accessory to his clothing to the point that he would carry one as soon as he put his clothes on.

As far as the presence of Knox Amanda is concerned in the place of the murder, there are the statements from Sollecito who has lately confirmed that he was always together with her and in the objective circumstances that only the aforementioned had access to the keys of the apartment in via della Pergola and had therefore the ability to open the front door without leaving any signs of breakage. […]

Referring to the position of Diya Lumumba, the statements on 6 November of Knox Amanda are of extreme relevance, considering that his presence in the inside of Meredith's bedroom at the moment of the murder while Meredith screamed.

Such statements find confirmation, even if indirectly, with the facts concerning the official opening hours of the pub Le Chic.

In fact, while Lumumba was in the court hearing he confirmed that he had opened the pub in the afternoon of November 1 at around 1700 to 1800. The first receipts are shown to start from 22.29 and the suspect was not able to give any logical explanation for these circumstances, and was not able to furnish precise indications of the eventual clients who could attest to his presence in the pub before 22.29, and was not able to provide precise and therefore useful indications for the meeting with a person known only as Usi who would have come into the bar at 2000, or was able to give a telephone number or other identifying elements, despite calling him a friend.

It must be further added that in the moment when this judge put the contestation to the suspect, he remained in silence for a few minutes seeking to justify the "gap" by saying the receipts started not from the moment of order but when the client left the pub.

However, this justification does not hold up in as far as it does not explain how from 1800 to 2229 there were no receipts and these only started from 22.29 to closing time. More discrepancies about the closing time of the pub before its stated closing time came in the statements of one of its habitual clients, Vulcano Gerardo Pasquale, who was heard for the first time on November 7 2007, who said on the evening of the 1 November, towards 1900 that the pub was closed.

Exchange student Meredith Kercher may have been killed when she refused to take part in an "extreme" sexual game instigated by her room-mate, an official report has suggested.

How the sex game went wrong: Judge's report
The 19-page court document detailed the horrific last moments of the 21-year-old’s life and revealed the hypothesis her throat was slit after she was subjected to a prolonged sex assault.


A possible reconstruction suggested that high on drugs, Miss Kercher’s American flatmate Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito had wanted to try an "extreme experience" along with Congolese immigrant Patrick Diya Lumumba.

But when Miss Kercher refused to take part in having sex, Sollecito pulled out the 8.5cm flick knife he carried with him. They allegedly put a knife to her throat and forced her into having sex against her will, according to the report.

Then one of them slit her throat but the cut failed to hit the main artery and Miss Kercher died a slow agonising death.

The revelations from the report by Judge Claudia Matteini emerged as she remanded the three suspects in jail saying there were "serious indications of guilt."

Knox, 20, from Seattle, Sollecito, 23, and Lumumba, 37, from the Congo, will be kept in prison until a trial date can be set, at which point they will be formally charged with murder and sexual assault of Miss Kercher, who was found semi-naked in her bed with her throat cut last Friday.


Judge Matteini wrote: "It is possible to reconstruct what happened on the evening of November 1.

"Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox spent the entire afternoon smoking hashish," she said, before Lumumba texted her mobile phone in order to arrange a meeting.

The judge said Knox had previously agreed to help Lumumba "have an encounter with Meredith".

The three suspects returned to the house that Knox shared with Miss Kercher just after 9pm, at around the hour that Miss Kercher, of Coulsdon, Surrey, was returning, having eaten a pizza at the house of her best friend, Sophie Purton, the report said.

At the house, Sollecito "bored of the same old evening, and wanting to try an 'extreme experience’" allegedly took part with Lumumba and Knox in a sexual assault.

"[Meredith] went into her room with Patrick, after which something went badly, in the sense that, in all probability, Sollecito came in and the two started to try a swap, to which the girl refused," the report said.

"She was then menaced with a knife, a knife which Sollecito usually had with him, and with which Meredith was struck in the throat," wrote the judge.

"There was the initial desire of the three youths to try some new sensation. Above all for the boyfriend and girlfriend, while Lumumba had the desire to join carnally with a girl that he fancied and who refused him," she added.

She said the killer had probably put a knife to Miss Kercher’s throat, perhaps as a threat, but that this had turned "into something much more serious".

The blade had "penetrated deeply" but had not severed the Carotid artery, resulting in a "slow death".

The three suspects then tried to simulate a theft, wrecking the inside of the house and spraying the floor and sink in the bathroom with blood, according to the judge.

Police have accused Knox of helping to hold Miss Kercher down during the sexual assault claiming that her finger prints had been found on the British student’s face.

All three have protested their innocence, although Knox has confessed that she was in the house at the time that Miss Kercher was killed.

But the judge said their testimonies were full of contradictions and lacked "logical explanations" for the discrepancies between their diverse accounts.

Lumumba said he had been in his bar, Le Chic, but the judge said that a regular passed it at 7pm to find it closed.

Sollecito’s alibi was countered by the fact that a footprint in blood matching his shoe was found underneath the duvet covering Miss Kercher’s corpse.

In addition, his three-inch flick knife, which he said he carried with him everywhere "as a habit since he was 13-years-old" has been taken in by police for forensic analysis.

Meanwhile, Giuliano Mignini, the chief public prosecutor, confirmed that there may be a fourth person connected to the crime, after finding an unknown fingerprint in blood on a cushion.

Police also claimed that a man had reported receiving a text message by mistake which read "For me, tomorrow or tonight Meredith dies" which was sent two days before Miss Kercher was killed.

The following are extracts from the official judge's report on the murder of Meredith Kercher, obtained by the Telegraph

They "tried to force the will of the girl"
"As far as the juridical aspect of the case, there are no doubts at this moment in presuming this to be correct: that there was an initial wish of the three youths to try a new sensation, above all for the boyfriend and girlfriend, while for Diya the desire to have carnal relations with a girl he liked and who was refusing him, and in the face of a denial from the victim, they did not have the presence of mind to desist, but tried to forced the will of the girl using a knife that Sollecito always carried with him.


They succeeded in having some approaches but given the reaction of Meredith they were very hurried and not completed and to this violence it is possible to add homicide since the knife, having wounded the victim's neck on two occasions, penetrated it deeply the third time, leaving the fatal wound".

"Bored of the same old evening"
"It is possible to reconstruct what happened on the evening of November 1. Sollecito Raffaele and Knox Amanda spent the entire afternoon smoking hashish.

On the evening around 8.30pm, while Knox found herself at the house of Sollecito, she received the message from Diya Lumumba who, rather than simply warning her to not come to work, instead confirmed the appointment that evening, having obviously agreed beforehand that the girl would provide him with help in having an encounter with her friend Meredith;

Sollecito Raffaele, bored of the same old evening and wanting to try "extreme experiences" as can be found on his blog with the date 13 October 2007 and as he confirmed in the audience chamber (experiences that can include also an intense sexual relation which breaks up the monotony of everyday life) went out with Amanda.

The two met Diya Lumumba in piazza Grimana around 9pm and went together to the apartment on via della Pergola 7, of which only Amanda had the key.

It was more or less at this time that either Sollecito or Knox turned off their mobile phones, which became active again the following morning.

A little after, Meredith returned or she might have been already there. She went into her room with Patrick, after which something went badly, in the sense that in all probability Sollecito came in and the two started to try a swap, to which the girl refused.

She was then menaced with a knife, a knife which Sollecito usually had with him, and with which Meredith was struck in the throat

"On 2 November 2007 at 12.35pm persons from the Postal Police of Perugia went to Via della Pergola 7 in order to track down Romanelli Filomena, since in the same morning Mrs Lana Elisabetta had found on the lawn of the garden attached to her house, in Perugia, Via Sperandio 5b, two mobile phones of which one had the sim card of Vodafone 348 467 3711, belonging to the same Romanelli.

Upon reaching the destination the agents found outside the building on Via Della Pergola 7 two youths, identified as KNOX Amanda Marie, who lived at that address, and SOLLECITO Raffaele, who said they were waiting for the Carabinieri military police, called because on that morning they became aware of a window with the glass broken and had suspected a theft.

"With the door opened there was a chilling scene"
In the meantime, at 1pm, arrived Romanellli, the housemate of Knox who verified that nothing had been taken from the apartment.


In the course of the search it was ascertained that the door of the room which was used by Meredith Kercher, the other girl living in the apartment, was closed and locked and it was decided therefore to break down the door because Romanelli said it was strange that her friend Kercher could have both her telephones switched off, having lately used also the phone with the sim card stated [of Romanelli], and that the door should be closed.

With the door opened there was a chilling scene in so far as the room was found in disorder with blood stains everywhere, on the ground and on the walls, and also under the duvet of the bed a foot could be seen.

The agents, in order to avoid any pollution of the crime scene, stopped everyone from entering the room.

The girl, found dead with a blow to her neck with a sharp weapon, was identified as Meredith Kercher, an English student in Italy from September and enrolled on the Erasmus scheme and at the University of Perugia.

From the first medical examination of the corpse by the pathologist, Dr Luca Lalli, it has been established that the death occurred at 11pm at the earliest and at the latest one hour after with the scope of a time frame between 10pm and midnight on the day 1 November 2007.

To this conclusion it can be added the supposition of a dinner eaten at 9pm, in reality the events show that the hour could certainly be predicted, according to what PURTON Sophie said on 2 November 2007, that at 9pm the dinner was already finished and that Meredith was already on her way home.

As for the cause of death, the verdict reached is that was caused by a haemorrhage from a neck wound after the blow of a sharp and pointed weapon.

From reading the first summary of Dr Lalli's report, deposited at the court on November 8 2007, after the autopsy on the corpse of Meredith Kercher, it emerges that the wound had not hit the carotide artery so the death was preceded by a relatively slow agony, circumstances which allow use to date back the time of the criminal act to between 21.30pm and 11.30pm on the day of November 1 2007, a timetable which tallies with the consumption of dinner in an hour before 9pm.

"Meredith had never let any man into her bedroom except for Silenzi Giacomo, her boyfriend."
In the course of the investigation many youths were questioned which Meredith had the opportunity of knowing and spending time with in her time in Perugia and nothing in particular emerged about her private life except that for around three weeks she had had a sentimental attachment with SILENZI Giacomo, one of the four boys who lived in the apartment on the ground floor of the building at Via della Pergola 7, the others being Marzan Marco, Bonassi Stefano and Luciani Riccardo.


These boys, when interviewed, said they had all left Perugia between Saturday and Monday to return to their respective places of residence. Marzan Marco, Bonassi Stefano and Silenzi Giacomo at Porto San Giorgio and Luciani Riccardo to Bologna. Romanelli Filomena, when first interviewed, on November 2 2007, said she was living in the apartment on the second floor of the building in via Pergola 7 with Laura Mezzetti, Knox Amanda and Meredith Kercher.

Romanelli had above all ties with Laura Mezzetti also because of shared interests, while the two foreign girls were close and had similar daily habits in that both were students who usually went together to the university and had the same circle of friends.

She pointed out in successive interviews, on November 7 2007, that Meredith had never let any man into her bedroom except for Silenzi Giacomo, her boyfriend.

The attention of the investigators centred, however, on Knox Amanda and her boyfriend, Sollecito Raffaele.

In the first place, when it comes to these two, it has been shown that despite their affirmations to the Postal Police, it is not true that they had called 112 for the intervention of the Carabinieri military police, thinking that they had suffered a blow.

In fact, from our investigation it emerged that the Postal Police arrived at 12.35 while the call to 112 came at 12.51 and 12.54, circumstances that suggest a conduct that they wished it to be thought they had been surprised outside the building where the homicide was carried out.

They wanted to justify their presence outside, considering the conditions in which they found the apartment, above all because of the state of the blood stains on the floor and the wall."

"She found traces of blood which she did not worry about cleaning"
Knox Amanda was heard for the first time on 2 November 2007 and on that occasion said she had seen Meredith at 1pm at the apartment that the aforementioned occupied, where she found her together with her boyfriend Sollecito Raffaele, and that she saw her leave at around 1500 to 1600 but did not know where she was going, and that she stayed with Sollecito until 1700, and that they went to his apartment, where they spent the whole night.


And that she returned to the apartment in Via della Pergola 7 at 1100 on the successive morning and had found the door open, that she tried to call the housemates but had no response, and that she was in one of the two bathrooms when she found traces of blood which she did not worry about cleaning, and to have noticed that in the other bathroom the water was full of faeces, and that she was astonished by did not try to clean it, and that she left the apartment at 11.30, closing the front door and locking it, and that she went back to Sollecito's apartment […]

And that she had tried to contact Meredith but without any result, and that she went back to the apartment in Via della Pergola in the company of Sollecito and that she noticed that the glass of a window was broken, and that she discovered the door of the room occupied by Meredith was locked and that she decided to call the Carabinieri after Sollecito called his sister to ask what they should do.

On the same date, Sollecito Raffaele was interview, who completely confirmed Knox's statement with the only difference being that he found the water in the toilet clean, instead of what the girl had said.

However, when the Carabinieri arrived the water was found to be still dirty with faeces.

On November 5 2007, at 22.40, Sollecito Raffaele was interviewed again, and he changed his version of events, saying that on the evening of November 1, after Meredith left the house, he was with Knox Amanda until 1800 when they had both left the apartment to go into the centre, around 2030 to 2100.

Knox left him, saying to him that she would go to the pub Le Chic to meet friends while he returned to his house, where he received a phone call from his father on his fixed line at 2300, and that he was using his computer for two hours while smoking a joint, and that the girl returned around 1am and that they both work up at 1000 when Amanda left the house to return to Via della Pergola.

He retracted his previous statement and justified his conduct by say that it was Knox who convinced him to give a false version of events.

"Disturbed, she put her fingers in her ears, imagining what could have happened"
From her testimony Knox Amanda, on 6 November 2007, first at 01.45 and then at 05.45 told the investigating magistrate that on Thursday 1 November, at 20.30, while she found herself at the home of Sollecito Raffaele, received a message from her own mobile phone sent from Patrick, the owner of the Le Chic pub, where she was working, in which the aforementioned told her that on that night the pub would be closed and therefore she should not come to work, the aforementioned responded See You Later.


Then left the house telling Sollecito that she was going to work, while, on the contrary, she was at the basketball court of Piazza Grimana.

There she met Patrick with whom she went to the apartment at Via Pergola where she does not remember if Meredith was already there or whether she joined them slightly later, adding, however, that despite her confused recollection because she had smoked hashish, Patrick went off with Meredith, about which she was vague, into the bedroom where they had sex and that she does not remember if Meredith was threatened first but said it was Patrick that killed her, saying that in that moment she did not know how to put into words that she heard Meredith scream out loudly and that, disturbed, she put her fingers in her ears, imagining what could have happened.

She also said that she was not sure whether Sollecito Raffaele was present but the following morning she found herself in his house in his bed.

She later confirmed the statements she gave about her activity from 1000 in the morning, the moment when she woke up, until the arrival of the Postal Police.

"This objective fact cannot but represent a grave indication of guilt on the part of Sollecito Raffaele"
It was in this moment that Knox Amanda and Sollecito Raffaele lost the appearance that they were persons informed about the facts and became suspects themselves.


And it should be noted that on November 6 a pair of Nike size 42 ½ gymnastic shoes and a black flick knife 8.5cm long and 2cm wide were seized from the ownership of Sollecito Raffaele.

The results of a first check on the place of the murder found the trace of a footprint, verification of which shows a clear compatibility with the imprint of the shoes of Sollecito.

In fact, the checks by the forensic police, under the duvet that covered the body of Meredith show three footprints of which one, the only one which it was possible to analyze because of the others where indefinite, shows itself to be compatible in shape and dimensions with the sole of the shoe taken from Sollecito Raffaele.

Clearly it is possible to contest that Sollecito Raffaele, in the audience with judge, affirmed that he passed the entire night between November 1 and 2 with Knox Amanda.[…]

The presence of Sollecito in Meredith's room can be confirmed by the footprint found underneath the duvet which her body was covered with. […]

This objective fact cannot but represent a grave indication of guilt on the part of Sollecito Raffaele which is deepened further if combined with the removal from his person of a flick knife with an 8.5cm blade, defined by the pathologist as compatible with the possible murder weapon.

The suspect affirmed in the audience with the judge to convalidate the arrest that he had carried a knife with him by habit since he was 13-years-old, and in fact the knife had become an accessory to his clothing to the point that he would carry one as soon as he put his clothes on.

As far as the presence of Knox Amanda is concerned in the place of the murder, there are the statements from Sollecito who has lately confirmed that he was always together with her and in the objective circumstances that only the aforementioned had access to the keys of the apartment in via della Pergola and had therefore the ability to open the front door without leaving any signs of breakage. […]

"The suspect was not able to give any logical explanation for these circumstances"
Referring to the position of Diya Lumumba, the statements on 6 November of Knox Amanda are of extreme relevance, considering that his presence in the inside of Meredith's bedroom at the moment of the murder while Meredith screamed.


Such statements find confirmation, even if indirectly, with the facts concerning the official opening hours of the pub Le Chic.

In fact, while Lumumba was in the court hearing he confirmed that he had opened the pub in the afternoon of November 1 at around 1700 to 1800. The first receipts are shown to start from 22.29 and the suspect was not able to give any logical explanation for these circumstances, and was not able to furnish precise indications of the eventual clients who could attest to his presence in the pub before 22.29, and was not able to provide precise and therefore useful indications for the meeting with a person known only as Usi who would have come into the bar at 2000, or was able to give a telephone number or other identifying elements, despite calling him a friend.

It must be further added that in the moment when this judge put the contestation to the suspect, he remained in silence for a few minutes seeking to justify the "gap" by saying the receipts started not from the moment of order but when the client left the pub.

However, this justification does not hold up in as far as it does not explain how from 1800 to 2229 there were no receipts and these only started from 22.29 to closing time. More discrepancies about the closing time of the pub before its stated closing time came in the statements of one of its habitual clients, Vulcano Gerardo Pasquale, who was heard for the first time on November 7 2007, who said on the evening of the 1 November, towards 1900 that the pub was closed.

Meredith Kercher: Judge's report

Extracts from report by Judge Claudia Matteini, of the Civil and Penal Tribunal of Perugia, on the Meredith Kercher case


“It is possible to reconstruct what happened on the evening of November 1. Sollecito, Raffaele, and Knox, Amanda, spent the entire afternoon smoking hashish. In the evening, around 8.30pm, while Knox found herself at the house of Sollecito, she received a message from Diya Lumumba who ... confirmed the appointment that evening, having obviously agreed beforehand that the girl would provide him with help in having an encounter with her friend Meredith.

“Raffaele Sollecito, bored with the same old evenings, and wanting to experience extreme sensations, intense sexual relations which break up the monotony of everyday life, went out with Amanda and met Lumumba at Piazza Grimana at 9pm. They went together to the apartment on via della Pergola 7, to which only Amanda had the key. It was roughly at this time that both Sollecito and Knox switched off their mobile phones until the following morning.

“A short while later, Meredith returned, or she could have already been there. She went into her bedroom with Patrick, after which something went wrong, in the sense that Sollecito in all probability joined them and the two began to make advances, which the girl refused. She was then threatened with a knife, the knife which Sollecito generally carried with him and which was used to strike Meredith in the neck.

“The three, realising what had happened, quickly left the house, creating a mess with the intention of simulating a break-in, spreading blood everywhere, and in an attempt to clean up drops of blood in the bath, on the ground and in the sink.


“On November 2, 2007, at 12.35pm, persons from the Postal Police of Perugia went to Via della Pergola 7 in order to trace Filomena Romanelli, since the same morning Mrs Lana Elisabetta had found in the garden attached to her house, in Perugia, Via Sperandi 5b, two mobile phones, one of which one had a Vodaphone Sim card belonging to the same Romanelli.

“On reaching the destination, the agents found two youths outside the house identified as Knox, Amanda Marie, who lived at that address, and Sollecito, Raffaele. They said they were waiting for the Carabinieri military police, whom they had called that morning when they had become aware of a window with glass broken and suspected a theft.

“Meanwhile, Romanelli, the housemate of Knox, arrived and verified that nothing had been taken from the apartment. In the course of the search it was ascertained that the door of the room which was used by Meredith Kercher, the other girl living in the apartment, was closed and locked, and it was decided to break down the door, because Romanelli said it was strange that her friend Kercher could have both her telephones switched off, having lately used also the phone with Romanelli's Sim card, and that the door was closed.

“When the door was opened there was a chilling scene, in that the room was found in disorder with blood stains everywhere, on the ground and on the walls. A foot could be seen under the duvet of the bed. The agents, in order to avoid polluting the scene of the crime, stopped everyone from entering the room.

“The girl, found dead with a blow to her neck with a sharp weapon, was identified as Meredith Kercher, an English student in Italy from September and enrolled on the Erasmus scheme and at the University of Perugia.

“From the first medical examination of the corpse by the pathologist, Dr Luca Lalli, it has been established that death occurred at 11pm at the earliest and at the latest one hour after, with a time frame between 10pm and midnight on November 1, 2007.

“The fact that Meredith was a victim of violence is evident from the state in which her body was found. In Dr Lalli's report there is evidence of bruising on the lips, gums and chin.

“There are the bruises and the lesions on the neck, which suggest that Meredith was held by the neck, leaving bruising compatible with the pressure of fingers, and subsequently threatened with a knife held to her throat. Meredith was held down, and bruises indicate a sexual act carried out or attempted in a hurry or against the girl's wishes.”