'Foxy Knoxy': I heard Meredith scream... then covered my ears

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Knox is said to have given a 'partial confession'

In an extraordinary statement to detectives Amanda Knox claims she sat in the kitchen of their house and listened to the British student being killed.

The 20-year-old said she knew Miss Kercher was in her bedroom with musician Patrick Diya Lumumba - but did nothing to help.

The student wasn't clear if she heard 'thuds' but 'I could imagine what was going on', she told police in Perugia after 'crumbling' under days of questioning.

"I can't remember how long they were together in the bedroom but the only thing I can say is that at a certain point I remember hearing Meredith's screams and I covered my ears.

"Then I don't remember anything else. There is such a lot going on in my head."

The bizarre extracts from a rambling 'confession' by Knox emerged yesterday.

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Playing with fire: Knox toys with a machinegun

The girl, her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 23, and Congolese father of one Lumumba, 37, were arrested in a series of dawn raids on Tuesday.

The trio are accused of murdering Miss Kercher, 21, as she fought off a violent sexual attack. She was found lying semi-naked in her bedroom six days ago with her throat cut.

Police last night took away a flick knife with a three-inch blade from the home of Sollecito, compatible with the wound to Miss Kercher's throat. It will be tested for blood and fingerprints.

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Suspects: Patrick Lumamba (left) and Miss Knox's boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito

The post-mortem examination on Miss Kercher's body has already revealed that the wound to her throat was likely to have been caused by a penknife.

Police believe that the cut was most likely made by a man, because of the depth.

Yesterday the suspects were being held in isolation in prison, ahead of an appearance before a magistrate this morning when they may be charged.

All three of the accused appear to be denying responsibility for the crime - and also appear to be blaming each other.

Extracts from statements made by Knox and Sollecito to police revealed convoluted and contradictory accounts of her final hours.

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Knox's room in the flat she shared with Meredith in Perugia

Knox, whose nickname on her Myspace website is 'Foxy Knoxy', originally claimed she stumbled on the crime after a night with her boyfriend.

Now she has admitted that she was present all along - but says it was Lumumba who carried out the act.

Knox, who worked for Lumumba at his bar Le Chic, said the musician 'scared' her.

She said she arranged to meet him via text message at 9pm on the night of the crime. This is the same time that police know Miss Kercher left the home of an English friend after watching a romantic movie.

"We met at nine on the basketball court and we then went to my house," she said. "I can't remember if my friend Meredith was there or if she came later. We were all separate."

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Tragic: A student lights candles in Perugia on Monday night

Contradicting herself she then said: "I can't remember if Raffaele was there that night. I remember waking up in his bed at his house and that I went back to my house where I found the door open."

As for doctor's son Sollecito, details of his statement suggested he had lied to cover up for his girlfriend.

It was he who only a day after the discovery of the body spoke to reporters of accompanying Knox to her hillside home after they had spent the night together, and discovering Miss Kercher's body in a pool of blood.

But now he says: "I want to tell you that before, I told a load of b*******."

He claims that Knox left his house at around 9pm on the night of the murder. He spoke to his urologist father by phone and surfed the internet, until she returned at 1am.

The next morning she went home to shower and change, and returned to tell him that she had found the front door open and blood in the bathroom. They then returned to the house together, arriving shortly before police, he said.

His lawyer Tiziano Tedeschi said: "The possible hypothesis is that being with a beautiful girl he allowed himself to be drawn into giving her an alibi."

Lumumba, who has been a well-known and popular figure in Perugia for a decade, was heard shouting "I'm innocent" as he was arrested by police.

Police chief Arturo De Felice said that the three had continually changed their stories and that things just 'didn't add up'.

He added: "They all participated but had different roles and we know that phone records don't match."

Knox's mother Edda Mellas was in Perugia last night, as was Sollecito's father. They are unlikely to see their children until prison visiting on Saturday.

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Meredith's parents Arline and John Kercher with their eldest daughter Stephanie in Perugia

A more detailed picture of party-loving Knox has emerged.

She was fined £135 for 'a residential disturbance' while at the University of Washington, where she was an honours student studying Italian, German and creative writing.

On her Myspace page, Knox, who has German ancestry on her mother's side, jokes that she is secretly a Nazi.

A picture of her laughing and posing while holding a machine gun in Germany has the caption: 'The Nazi on the inside.'

But friends said she was the 'last person you would have thought would get involved in something like this. She wasn't at all wild or promiscuous'.

Her family is refusing to comment. Her father Curtis Knox, 47, is a vice president at Macy's department store in Seattle.

Miss Kercher's family - father John, mother Arline and sister Stephanie - yesterday arrived in Perugia. They laid a note and a rose next to an array of candles outside the cathedral. The note said: 'Love you forever Meredith, all my love Dad xxx.'

Last night a memorial vigil was held at Leeds University, where Miss Kercher was due to complete her European studies degree after a year in Perugia.

 

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