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Knox is 'very, very scared' as she faces trial over Meredith killing
Nick Pisa in Perugia29 Oct 2008
AMANDA Knox was said to be "scared about the future" today after her co-accused was jailed for 30 years for the killing of London student Meredith Kercher.
The American 21-year-old told her lawyer that she had hoped to be cleared at the end of a fast-track trial.
Instead she now faces a full-scale criminal hearing in December over the murder of her 21-year-old British housemate in Perugia.
Knox broke down in tears as a judge ruled she should be sent for trial along with her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24.
The couple are accused of murdering Miss Kercher, of Coulsdon, in a drug-fuelled sex game. Last night drifter Rudy Guede, 21, was sentenced to 30 years for the murder.
Knox and Sollecito's trial is due to start on 4 December. The pair were arrested days after Meredith was found dead on 2 November last year.
Today Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said: "Amanda is very, very scared about the future. She had hoped that she would be cleared.
"Our only hope for her now is that the judge grants her house arrest at least so she will be out of jail a cell is not the right place for an innocent 21-year-old girl.
"When the verdict was returned she burst into tears and just said, 'I want to go home'. I told her to have courage and be brave. The fight has only just begun."
Knox's lawyers have applied for her to be placed at a hostel run by Catholic charity Caritas on the edge of Lake Trasimeno at Castiglione dell Lago.
Knox's divorced parents Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, who have flown to Perugia from their home in Seattle, were said to be "devastated" by the news.
One source close to the family said: "They are at rock bottom. They were really hoping this nightmare would end and the case would be dropped. Now they are willing with all their might for house arrest."
Judge Paolo Micheli will rule today on whether Knox could be freed on house arrest.
He will also decide if Sollecito should be given house arrest at his father's home 300 miles away in Bisceglie.
Miss Kercher was in Perugia as part of a year-long exchange programme during her European Studies degree at Leeds University.
Guede, 21, was found guilty after a six-week hearing.
