Amanda Knox: Truth about Meredith Kercher’s murder has never been acknowledged

Amanda Knox has said the truth “has never been acknowledged” in relation to the murder of her flatmate, Meredith Kercher.

The 34-year-old, who was convicted and later cleared of Ms Kercher’s murder, described how she still has not got closure from the case despite it being 10 years since she was freed from prison.

Ms Knox reflected on the case 14 years after Ms Kercher was found dead in the pair’s flat in Italy.

Officers discovered the body of the 21-year-old British foreign exchange student in her bedroom in Perugia on November 2 2007.

They said Ms Kercher’s throat had been slashed and she had been sexually assaulted.

Ms Knox and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested and later convicted of murder and sexual assault in 2009.

The couple maintained their innocence and, after years of legal battles, she and Mr Sollecito were acquitted of sexual assault and murder by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted of Ms Kercher’s murder in 2008 and is currently serving a 16-year sentence. He denies murdering Ms Kercher.

During an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour on Thursday, Ms Knox described how the case has continued to affect her life years after being exonerated.

Outlining why she appeared in the Netflix documentary, Amanda Knox, or why she has never changed her name or her appearance in a bid to try and distance herself from the incident, she said: “I think, in part, because I don’t think the truth has honestly ever been acknowledged.

“For me, there’s a sense of there not being closure in this case. I also know that for Meredith’s family, or at least I’ve heard as much, I don’t want to assume anything.

“But I know that there is this sense of non-closure and what I’ve learned from this experience, I’ve seen the same kind of mistakes are perpetuated over and over and over again in other cases.”

She added she now does advocacy work on behalf of people who were also wrongfully convicted as a way to address the “void” in the cultural awareness of the case and as “a way to honour the fact that something very real happened to Meredith”.

“Meredith was sexually assaulted and murdered. In no way should that ever have happened and there should be clarity about this.

“We should be focusing on the evidence, we should be focusing on the truth and we should have a sense of as much closure as one can have when the murderer hasn’t actually admitted to everything that happened,” she added.

Ms Knox said Guede has “never offered” closure to Ms Kercher’s family, Mr Sollecito or herself.

She became emotional when questioned how she reflected now on the murder, 14 years after it happened.

“I’ve always put myself in Meredith’s shoes,” she said. “I’m sort of haunted by this survivor’s guilt.

“Maybe if I had been there, we would have been able to fight him off together or maybe we both be dead. I don’t know. Those sort of thoughts go through my mind.”

With her voice cracking while she spoke, she added: “This year, I’ve been thinking about Meredith’s mum. It’s the first year that I’ve put myself in Meredith’s mum’s shoes and how it is not fair.

“It’s not fair and nothing will ever bring Meredith back and nothing will ever take away the painful last moments of her life.”

Ms Knox, who gave birth to a daughter last month, added: “I am thinking about that for my own daughter.

“How I want the world to be a better place for her than it was for me and that it was for Meredith.”