Who is Amanda Knox, who killed Meredith Kercher and what happened to Raffaele Sollecito? | The Sun

AMANDA Knox first became known to the nation in 2007, when she was charged with murdering Brit student, Meredith Kercher.

But who is the woman behind this case and where is she now? Here's everything you need to know.

Who is Amanda Knox?

Amanda Knox was just another American student and activist keen to explore the world.

The young woman, who grew up in Washington with her family, developed a love for Italy and went on to study linguistics at the University of Washington.

Then at 20-years-old, Knox worked part-time during her study to fund an exchange to Italy, despite her father's misgivings that she might have been too naive.

Eventually moving to Perugia in Italy's centre, the young woman moved in with several other students including Meredith Kercher, 21, at Via della Pergola.

While there, she started dating Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old Italian student, and worked in a bar.

But on November 2, 2007, Amanda's life changed forever.

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Knox arrived at her home, later telling police that she noticed that the front door was open and there was dried blood in the bathroom.

After calling police, the body of roommate Meredith was found inside her locked bedroom.

Knox and then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of stabbing 21-year-old Brit student Kercher to death at a flat in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.

The pair were found guilty in 2009, but freed on appeal two years later.

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Their guilty verdict was reinstated in 2014 but quashed by Italy’s top court in March 2015.

After her experience, she said that people had flocked to apologise to her – even stopping her in the street to say sorry for jumping to conclusions about her.

She has also spoken out about the difficulties of having her sex life pried open and shared with the world.

Three years ago she started dating Christopher Robinson – a Seattle-based poet and novelist, whose sci-fi themed proposal went viral in November 2018.

She also revealed that many inmates in jail turned "gay for the stay" but insisted she had turned down propositions by other females.

Knox recently spoke to a panel of lawyers and discussed the effect the case had on her family and how the case came to define her, and featured in a Netflix documentary about her experiences.

On February 26 2019, it emerged that Knox attended a murder mystery party where a victim was "stabbed" to death.

She even appeared to poke fun at the case in her picture caption, referencing the four years it took to be acquitted of the murder.

The American posted a picture on Instagram which showed her dressed as writer Ada Lovelace alongside her fiancé Christopher Robinson.

In June 2019. Knox broke down in tears as she revealed she still fears fresh charges.

She said she had even contemplated suicide after being accused of murder as she returned to Italy for the first time since she was cleared.

And she revealed people had thought she was "crazy" to attend the panel discussing wrongful convictions in the country's northern city of Modena.

Speaking to the crowd, she said: "I'm afraid today, now, I'm afraid of being harassed, mocked, stuck and I'm afraid that new accusations will be addressed to me just because I come here to say my version of the facts.

"But above all, I fear I will lack the courage."

In 2021, Knox and her partner Christopher Robin welcomed their first child together.

She took to Instagram to share her news, where she said: "Since my exoneration, I've struggled to reclaim my identity and protect the people I love from being exploited as tabloid content.

"It's not easy, and I often feel like I'm trying to invent good choices out of bad whole cloth. I know that I cannot 100% protect my daughter from the kind of treatment I've suffered, but I'm doing the best I can.

"Which is why this will be the only picture of her I will ever share on social media. I'm so grateful to everyone who has wished @emceecarbon and I well on our journey to parenthood. Thank you for believing in us."

Who killed Meredith Kercher?

Meredith Kercher was born in London in 1985, with the young woman moving to Italy to study the University of Perugia in 2007.

The 21-year-old was last seen on November 1 of that year, with her body found in a pool of blood in her bedroom the next day.

An autopsy conducted on her body found that her throat had been cut and she had been stabbed almost 50 times. It also found that she had 16 bruises, including on her nose and mouth, as well as suffering injuries related to sexual assault.

In 2007, fingerprints were identified at the scene as belonging to Rudy Guede, who was ultimately charged and sentenced for the brutal murder.

But controversy around what happened to the young woman has continued to rage on with the victim's sister recently claiming that Amanda Knox failed to answer key questions about the murder case.

Did Amanda Knox get any compensation?

Knox was awarded a £16,000 pay out after winning a European Human Rights Court case against the Italian government on January 24, 2019.

At the Court, she said Italian police had infringed her rights by failing to provide her with a lawyer, an interpreter and not following proper procedure.

She also insisted she had been slapped by cops during questioning but judges ruled there was no proof of that.

They wrote: "There was insufficient evidence to conclude that Ms Knox had actually sustained the inhuman or degrading treatment of which she had complained."

Within minutes of the decision, Knox, who now lives in Seattle, issued a statement again insisting she was hit.

She said: "I was interrogated for 53 hours over five days, without a lawyer, in a language I understood maybe as well as a ten year old.

"When I told police I had no idea who had killed Meredith I was slapped in the back of the head and told to 'Remember'".

Sources in Italy said Knox had been looking for £1.7m compensation but the ECHR gave her £9,000 damages and £6,900 towards costs.

There was no immediate response from the Italian government who have three months to reply.

What happened to Raffaele Sollecito?

Raffaele Sollecito was cleared of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher after spending nearly four years in jail.

The Italian man has since said that the convictions ruined his life, demanding £400,000 to cover legal costs that he incurred while trying to clear his name.

This bid was rejected in 2017, on the grounds that Sollecito made “contradictory or even frankly untrue” statements in the early stages of the investigation, which equated to “intent or gross negligence”.

He said: "There were many victims in this case. Amanda [Knox]'s parents, my parents, all our families… there are many others made by the prosecution's mistakes."

He then added that people did not understand why he had been acquitted, saying: "I have to face this kind of society. I have to face anybody that doesn't support me."

He denied making jokes on Facebook about the notorious 2007 murder, saying he had "limits".

More recently Sollecito has complained in the media of not being able to find a good girl, because the initial guilty rulings hung over him.

What happened to Rudy Guede?

Rudy Guede was 20-years-old when he became embroiled in the murder investigation into Meredith Kercher's death.

The man, born in the Ivory Coast, had befriended Knox and her roommates, having visited their home before the murder.

With a history of break ins and burglaries, the man became the focus of the murder investigation with fingerprints at the scene identified as belonging to him.

He was found guilty of the murder in 2008, sentenced to 30 years behind bars.

His sentence was later cut to 24 years, with it again cut to 16 years.

In 2021, Guede was released from prison after completing 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

What's in the Netflix documentary?

Amanda Knox flatly denied being involved in the murder of Meredith Kercher in a Netflix documentary, saying: "either I'm a psychopath in sheep's clothing, or, I am you."

Directed by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, the documentary followed other successful Netflix documentaries examining murder cases, including ‘Making A Murderer’.

The Netflix documentary promised to tell “the other side” of Knox’s story and included direct interviews with the woman almost 10 years on from the case.

In the trailer Knox speaks about how she had travelled to Italy to grow up – but her life was turned upside down by the case.

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