Murdered student's body flown home

Italian news agency Ansa said the body of the 21-year-old had left the town of Perugia, where she was found with her throat cut on November 2.

Miss Kercher's coffin is expected to fly from Rome to the UK, though the Foreign Office would not confirm this.

A judge has ruled there was enough evidence to hold three suspects - the student's American flatmate, Amanda Knox, Knox's Italian boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito, and Congolese immigrant Lumumba "Patrick" Diya - for up to a year.

After visiting him in prison, Sollecito's father Francesco told Ansa his son was "completely removed" from the death of Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey.

Tests are due to begin in Rome on forensic material found in the room where Miss Kercher was killed.

Ansa reported that dozens of fingerprints and biological traces had been found by police.

Lawyers acting for Sollecito have asked prosecutors to examine his computer, knife and shoes, Ansa said, as they believe this will show he was in his own room at the time of the killing, and not Miss Kercher's.

Grisly details of the Leeds University student's final hours emerged in a 19-page court document.

A report by judge Claudia Matteini suggested that Miss Kercher's throat was slit after she was subjected to prolonged and drug-fuelled sexual assault.