BEAMING Amanda Knox headed home to the United States today a free woman after
she was sensationally cleared of the murder of British student Meredith
Kercher.
Knox looked elated as she went through the boarding gate at Rome’s Fiumicino
Airport to catch her BA flight.
She landed at Heathrow Airport in London this afternoon, then transferred on
to a flight bound for her home in Seattle.
The 24-year-old had earlier arrived at the airport in Rome in a Mercedes with
darkened windows.
Before joining her family in the VIP lounge, she was taken to the airport
police station to sign various forms and anxiously called her lawyer to
check everything was OK for her to go through immigration.
Carlo Dalla Vedova said: “I spoke with her briefly. She was a bit worried
about going through immigration and although her passport was valid she was
still a little anxious as she was held in the airport police station for
paperwork procedures.”
After he assured her everything was alright, her lawyer added: ”She was calm,
serene and looking forward to going home and just spending some time with
her friends and family. She wants to get on with her life.
“She is a clever and intelligent girl who has been through a lot – one
day in prison is bad enough but four years is even worse.”
Mr Dalla Vedova added: “This case should never have come to court. Will
there be an investigation? I doubt it.
“Amanda will now have some time in Seattle and then get on with her life
and her family will also want to get back to theirs.”
Before she left Italy, Knox said she felt “no bitterness” towards
the country that had kept her locked up for four years.
Corrado Maria Daclon, a spokesman for the Italy-US Foundation, which had
backed Knox, said: “Despite everything she has gone through the last
few years and all the attacks against her right up until the final stages of
the appeal, where a conviction was sought with no evidence – she told me she
feels no bitterness.
“Her words have always been positive, she is tired but full of hope.
“Only a few days ago in jail she told me that she felt pain for those who
responded to hate with hatred because she feels this makes people
barbarians.
“She is certainly very drained but even after all this time she does not
have any resentment or animosity.
“She is a simple girl, always ready to help with great humanity and
sensibility, very different to how she has been described.”
Yesterday, Knox sobbed in court and her family whooped with joy as her 26-year
jail term was overturned.
Meredith’s mum Arline, brother Lyle and sister Stephanie, sitting just feet
away, kept a dignified silence as the appeal court judge in Perugia, Italy,
announced the dramatic verdict.
Today they told a press conference they accepted the court’s decision, but
said questions still had to be answered about what really happened to
Meredith.
Lyle said it was “back to square one” in the search to find out what “truly
happened”.
He added: “While we accept the decision that was handed down yesterday and
respect the court and the Italian justice system, we do find that we are now
left obviously looking at this again and thinking how a decision that was so
certain two years ago has been so emphatically over turned now.”
Arline said the family was “still absorbing” the verdict, adding: “It’s early
days.”
American Knox’s 27-year-old Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, serving
25 years, was also cleared of Meredith’s horrific knife killing.
The room was silent last night as the judge delivered the verdict.
Several female members of the jury smiled at Knox, who had buried her head in
the shoulder of her lawyer.
Weeping Knox was rushed from the court surrounded by police. Her parents Curt
Knox and Edda Mellas embraced.
Knox’s sister Deanna, 22, said: “We are thankful Amanda’s nightmare is over.
She suffered four years for a crime she did not commit.”
Mr Dalla Vedova said: “Meredith was a friend of Amanda — we should never
forget this.”
About 500 people had gathered outside the court to await the verdict — and
many were clearly unhappy.
Some shouted “shame” and “embarrassment”. One angry voice was heard to yell:
“She’s a murderer… a witch.”
Another said: “Run back to America on your private jet.”
Knox and Sollecito were taken back to prison to collect their things before
being released at 10.10pm.
She was said to be “jumping for joy” as she broke the news to other inmates.
This morning, the Kercher family added the “biggest disappointment” was
knowing that there was still someone out there who was responsible for
Meredith’s murder.
Stephanie said: “Until the truth comes out, we can’t forgive anyone. No-one
has admitted to it.
“We don’t want the wrong people put away for a crime they didn’t commit.”
She added: “It may be a case of waiting another year to get the truth.”
Lyle said: “There is, of course, a third defendant – Rudy Guede – who is
convicted, has been appealed and has been upheld and, at the time, I
understand the court agreed that he was not acting alone.
“Of course, if the two who were released yesterday were not the guilty
parties, we are now obviously left wondering who is the other person or
people, and really, for us, it feels very much almost like back to square
one and the search goes on really to find out what truly happened.”
Arline added: “What happened to my daughter, Meredith, is every parent’s
nightmare.
“Of something so terrible happening, when basically she was in the safest
place, her bedroom.”
She added: “Nobody is untouched by this.”
Lyle said the family were grateful for support they received from well-wishers
the world over both Italians and Americans.
He described as “nonsense” suggestions of a divide between Britain, America
and Italy over the crime.
He said the family had no criticism of the Italian system, adding: “We have
full faith in it.”
Prosecutors say they intend to take the case to a third and final appeal and
described the decision to free Knox as a ”massive mistake”.
Giuliano Mignini, the original prosecutor in the case, said today: ”Massive
mistakes were made by the experts and by the panel of judges at the appeal –
this is only the second stage.
“We are going to take this to the third and final level at the Supreme
Court in Rome.
”The court found her guilty of slander – so why find her guilty of slander?
Why did she commit the slander? She said that to save herself from the
murder charge.
“She named Patrick Lumumba to save herself and Sollecito simply followed
her.
“Wherever she goes he goes.”
Knox was yesterday told she must pay 22,000 euros (£18,792) in compensation to
Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, a barman she falsely accused of the murder.
And although she was acquitted of the killing, her conviction for slandering
Mr Lumumba was upheld.
She was given a three-year prison sentence, all of which she has already
served.
Knox and her family stayed at a local farmhouse before heading for Rome and
their flight home.
She could now make millions by selling the TV, film and book rights to her
story.
It is believed she has already been offered £650,000 by three American TV
networks for her first interview.
This morning Prime Minister David Cameron told ITV1’s Daybreak programme: “I
watched what happened last night.
“I haven’t followed every part of this case but what I would say is that we
should be thinking of the family of Meredith Kercher because those
parents…they had an explanation of what happened to their wonderful
daughter and that explanation is not there any more.
“Of course, there is still someone there in prison for her murder but I think
everyone today should be thinking about them and how they feel.”
Student Meredith, 21, from Coulsdon, South London, had been sharing a cottage
in Perugia with Knox when she was murdered in November 2007. Her throat was
slit and she was sexually assaulted.
Prosecutors said she was killed in a brutal sex game that went wrong.
Their case hinged on DNA evidence that prosecutors said linked Knox and
Sollecito to the murder.
Their lawyers argued the forensic evidence had been contaminated. Knox and
Sollecito also both claimed they were bullied by police into making false
confessions.
Initial confusion over the judge’s announcement led to a TV channel and
several news websites, including The Sun, briefly reporting incorrectly that
Knox HAD been found guilty.
This was immediately corrected when it then became clear that he had
pronounced her guilty of slander, before moving on to say both Knox and
Sollecito were innocent of Meredith’s murder and had succeeded in their
appeal.
Knox’s dramatic plea to jury: I did not kill, I
did not rape, I
did not steal, I was not there
From BOB GRAHAM, in Perugia, and NICK PARKER
TEARFUL Amanda Knox had emotionally protested her innocence in court, hours
before a jury dramatically cleared her of murdering British student Meredith
Kercher.
In a statement yesterday at the end of her appeal against conviction, American
beauty Knox, 24, insisted: “I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal.
I wasn’t there.”
She shook as she blasted claims that she was a sex-mad, manipulative “she
devil” who slit 21-year-old Meredith’s throat during a sadistic romp in
Perugia, Italy, in November 2007.
Breathless and speaking without notes, Meredith’s former flatmate Knox
implored: “I am the same person I was four years ago — I am not what they
say I am.
“The only thing that distinguishes me from four years ago is the four years
that I have suffered.
“I lost a friend, in the most brutal and inexplicable way possible.
“My absolute faith in the police authorities was betrayed. I’ve had to face
absolutely unfair and baseless accusations.
“I am paying with my life for things I did not commit. Four years ago I did
not know what tragedy was. It was something I saw on TV. It was not part of
me.
“I am not perverse, violent, disrespectful towards life, people.
“These things do not apply to me and I have not done the things that have been
suggested.”
At one point during her ten-minute plea, appeal judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman
asked Knox if she wanted to speak sitting down.
She politely declined and continued after lawyer Luciano Ghirga squeezed her
hand in encouragement.
In fluent Italian, she said: “I insist on the truth, I insist after four
desperate years on my innocence. I want to go home.
“I want to go back to my life. I do not want to be punished. I do not want to
be deprived of my life for something I did not do, because I am innocent.”
The dramatic speech had her watching parents Curt Knox and Edda Mellas in
tears.
Describing her anguish after the death of fellow exchange student Meredith, of
Coulsdon, South London, Knox said: “I had never faced such tragedy,
suffering.
“I didn’t know how to tackle it, how to interpret it. When we learnt Meredith
was dead, we just could not believe it. How was this possible?
“Then I felt scared. A person who I was sharing my life with, who had the
bedroom next to me, she was killed in our house — and if I was there that
night I could have been killed. I wasn’t there. I was at Raffaele’s.”
Knox, from Seattle, criticised Italian police as she recalled her
interrogation, in which she claims an officer twice cuffed her around the
head.
She said: “I had a sense of duty towards justice, the authorities, who I put
my trust in. They were there to find the guilty and to protect us. I put my
faith in them absolutely.
“I made myself available for them in those days but I was betrayed.
“I was pressured, stressed and manipulated.”
Knox told the court she was charged with murder after being grilled by police
for 14 hours without a lawyer or an interpreter. During her interrogation,
Knox was said to have admitted being at the murder scene and falsely
implicated 39-year-old barman Patrick Lumumba.
Police said she told them she “remembered Patrick killing Meredith” — and that
she had stayed in the kitchen “covering her ears to drown out the screams”.
Innocent Lumumba was arrested in a dawn raid in front of his wife and baby and
held for two weeks before being freed.
It was Lumumba’s lawyer Carlo Pacelli who launched the furious “she devil”
tirade against Knox in court last week — accusing her of “liking alcohol,
drugs and hot, wild sex”.
Italian prosecutors had claimed relations between Knox and her British
flatmate had been strained over the American’s sexually promiscuous
behaviour.
But Knox insisted she and Meredith were pals in her address yesterday.
She added: “I was messy, carefree but we had a good relationship, we were all
ready to help each other.
“I shared my life with Meredith, we had a friendship. She was always gentle
with me.”
Knox’s Italian ex-lover Raffaele Sollecito, 27 — who was jailed for murder
with her — also made an impassioned address to the jury yesterday. He said:
“I never hurt anyone in my life.” Taking off a white rubber bracelet
emblazoned with “Free Amanda and Raffaele”, he said he had been wearing it
for four years.
He added: “On this bracelet I have concentrated a desire for justice and
effort on the path we have followed in this dark tunnel — towards a light
that seemed ever further away.
“I have never taken it off. Now the moment to take it off has arrived.”
The freeing of Knox and Sollecito leaves one man still behind bars for the
murder of Meredith. Ivory Coast-born drug dealer Rudy Guede was jailed for
life, later reduced to 16 years on appeal.
Fury of Kercher dad
By NICK PARKER
MEREDITH Kercher’s father John last night said he could not believe the
judge’s decision.
He blasted: “It is ludicrous. How can they ignore all the other evidence?
I thought the judge might play it safe and uphold the conviction, reduce the
sentence. But this is crazy.
“There were 47 wounds on Meredith and two knives used. One person
couldn’t possibly have done that. What happens now? Does that mean the
police need to look for more killers?”
Speaking from the family home in from the family home in Coulsdon, South
London, he added: “It makes a mockery of the original trial. We’re all
shocked.
“We could understand them reducing the sentence, but completely freeing
them? Wow.”
At an earlier press conference in Perugia before the verdict was announced,
Meredith’s mother Arline, sister Stephanie and brother Lyle said people had
to remember “Mez” — their nickname for tragic 21-year-old
Meredith.
Stephanie said: “It’s been four years now and the focus has shifted for
obvious reasons on to the proceedings.
“Mez has been almost forgotten in all of this.
“The media have forgotten about her — it’s very difficult to keep her
memory alive in all this.
“We want to find the truth, we want to find justice for her. We want to
remember Meredith in the city she loved.”
Stephanie, 28, went on: “What has to be remembered is the brutality of
what happened that night. “Everything that Meredith felt that night,
the fear, the terror, she didn’t deserve that, no one deserves that.”
Asked if she had any closer idea of why her sister had been killed Stephanie
said: “No, I’ve no idea why. The reasons for that I couldn’t even begin
to understand.
“Meredith was such a lovely, lovely girl. She was always there for
everyone. Only those who were there on the night of the murder would ever
know what really went on.”
Lyle, 32, said it was hard to speak of forgiveness. He said: “It’s all
still very raw.”
Arline, 66, said: “You still have to go by the evidence. What I want,
what they want, does not come into it.”
Asked if she would accept Knox’s offer to reach out to them, Arline said: “I
don’t know really. It’s very hard to say.
“We need to find out what happened.”