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Witness imitates scream she heard the night Meredith Kercher died
Nick Pisa in Perugia27 Mar 2009
A woman today imitated to a court the terrifying scream she heard coming from the house where British student Meredith Kercher was murdered.
Nara Capezzali, 68, made a long screeching noise to the court as she described what she heard.
The widow was the first of 11 witnesses due to be heard today and tomorrow in the trial of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.
Mrs Capezzali said: "I went to bed around nine to 9.30pm as there was nothing on the TV and I woke up around two hours later to go to the bathroom.
"On my way I passed by the window and heard a scream, not a normal scream but a prolonged scream, it made my flesh crawl. I didn't know what was happening.
"I looked out the window but didn't see anything. Then a few minutes later I heard running on the metal staircase and then running through the leaves going in the other direction, it was at least two people.
"The scream left me really disturbed, even now it troubles me, it was a woman's scream, there was no call for help it was just a scream then nothing."
The court in Perugia has previously heard prosecutor Giuliano Mignini say Meredith was murdered after refusing to take part in a drug-fuelled sex orgy. Her American flatmate Knox, 21, and Italian Sollecito, 25, deny murder and sexual assault.
Knox, dressed in a blue jumper and jeans, looked on intently as Mrs Capezzali gave her evidence, occasionally making notes or talking with her legal team. Earlier, as she walked in escorted by two prison guards, she said: "I'm fine. The trial is going OK."
She exchanged smiles with Sollecito, who celebrated his 25th birthday yesterday. Knox sent him a card in return for the flowers he gave her when she turned 21 last year.
Leeds University student Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found semi-naked with her throat cut in November 2007 in her bedroom in the Perugia house she shared with Knox.
