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Knox declares innocence as Meredith Kercher's friends tell of suspect's cold behaviour
Nick Pisa13 Feb 2009
Amanda Knox today broke her silence in court to declare she was innocent of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
"I am innocent and I have faith in the Italian legal system,"she said.
Friends of Ms Kercher told the court earlier that Knox had exhibited "strange" behaviour hours after the body was found.
Robyn Butterworth said the 21-year-old American boasted about finding Ms Kercher's body and made an "upsetting" remark about how she had died.
Ms Butterworth, 23, from Northampton, was the first of seven of Ms Kercher's friends who have flown from Britain to give evidence in the trial in Perugia, central Italy. She was a student with Ms Kercher at the time of the killing.
She told the court: "When I arrived at the police station no one had said anything to me about how Meredith had died. While I was there I found Amanda's behaviour very strange. She had no emotion while everyone else was upset. I remember one thing that really upset me. [Ms Kercher's friend] Natalie said, 'I hope she wasn't in too much pain.' Amanda said, 'What do you think? She f***ing bled to death.' At that point no one had told us how Meredith died.
"I also heard Amanda say that Meredith had been found in a wardrobe. She was talking really loudly and I found it really uncomfortable. At one point she was on the telephone and was saying, 'How do you think I feel? I was the first to find her. It could have been me. I was there.' "
Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, both deny sexually assaulting and murdering Ms Kercher in 2007.
Her body was found semi-naked in the bedroom of the student house she shared with Knox in Perugia. Her throat had been cut after she had allegedly refused to join in a drug-fuelled sex orgy.
The evidence to be given by Ms Kercher's other six friends who were her fellow students in Perugia - Sophie Purton, Amy Frost, Natalie Hayworth, Jade Bidwell, Samantha Rodenhurst and Helen Powell - is key to chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini's case.
The prosecution team argue that Knox knew the details and circumstances of how Meredith died because she was at the scene and was responsible for the murder.
Miss Butterworth continued: "Everyone was crying, but Amanda was not crying, she was not showing any emotions. She and Raffaele were kissing and joking together. They were cuddling and at one point she stuck her tongue out at him."
Both Knox and Sollecito's defence teams argue that DNA evidence against the two suspects is contaminated and flawed.
Before today's hearing Knox's father, Curt, said his daughter knew details of how Ms Kercher died because police and friends had told her. He said: "The pieces in the case against Amanda are falling apart. Her innocence will be proved."
Under the complex Italian legal system the hearings will take place every Friday and Saturday and the trial is expected to last until the autumn.
