Judge orders new DNA tests in Knox retrial

01 October 2013 - 02:11 By unknown
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Amanda Knox. File photo
Amanda Knox. File photo
Image: REUTERS

Amanda Knox's DNA was nowhere to be found in the bedroom in which Meredith Kercher was found stabbed to death, an Italian court heard yesterday.

On the first day of the American's retrial, the court in Florence was told that there was ample DNA evidence from Rudy Guede, the Ivorian drifter who is serving a 16-year jail sentence after being convicted of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher, 21.

"How is it possible to find traces of Guede in enormous quantities but not a single trace of Amanda?" Giulia Bongiorno, representing 26-year-old Knox's ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 29, asked. "How is it possible that the only trace of Raffaele, which naturally we contest, was on the bra strap?''

Tiny traces of Sollecito's DNA were found on a strap torn from Kercher's bra in the violent struggle that led to her death.

But the strap was only discovered by forensic officers on the floor of the bedroom 47 days after the murder.

Defence lawyers maintain that it was subject to so much DNA contamination that it cannot be admitted as reliable.

The appeals court agreed yesterday to a prosecution request that fresh testing be carried out on a minute trace of DNA on the kitchen knife that was allegedly used to stab Kercher to death. It had not been examined previously because forensic experts said it was too scant to produce reliable results. The handle of the knife bore traces of Knox's DNA, but her lawyers said that was no surprise because it came from a kitchen drawer in her boyfriend's flat.

Alessandro Nencini, the judge in charge of the retrial, also agreed to hear testimony from Luciano Aviello, a member of the Camorra mafia, who has claimed that his brother killed Kercher during a bungled robbery and that Knox is innocent.

As well as Knox and Sollecito, none of the Kercher family was in court for the retrial.

But her family sent a letter to the judge in which they said they were keen to see crucial pieces of evidence reviewed.

"We desperately want to discover the truth and to find justice for Meredith, who was taken away from us so brutally and unnecessarily," the family wrote.

Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found stabbed to death in her bedroom, in the house in Perugia she shared with Knox and two young Italian women, in November 2007. Knox and her ex-boyfriend were found guilty of sexual assault and murder in 2009 but were then acquitted in 2011.

In March this year the Supreme Court in Rome ordered a retrial.

Knox has denied involvement in the killing. She told US television this month that "common sense" told her not to return to Italy.

She is not obliged to attend the hearing and can be represented by her lawyers, who said she is watching the retrial closely from home in Seattle. Sollecito, who has also protested his innocence, plans to attend some of the hearings, his father, Francesco, said.

The hearing was adjourned until Friday. - ©The Daily Telegraph, Reuters

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