Suspect ‘joked’ after finding pal’s body

AN American woman charged with murdering British student Meredith Kercher told a court yesterday she was innocent and was sure the truth would come out.

Amanda Knox was making her first public statements since she was arrested over the murder of her former roommate.

Knox, 21, addressed the court after an acquaintance testified she had been indifferent in the hours after Meredith was found dead on November 2, 2007.

“I am innocent,” Knox, speaking in Italian, said. “I’m confident that everything will come out and everything will work out.”

Earlier, the court heard from friends of the victim that Knox showed no distress and was cuddling with her boyfriend hours after the slaying.

Several British students, who were friends with Kercher, also talked about a problematic relationship between Kercher and Knox.

Knox, from Seattle, and Italian Raffaele Sollecito, 24, who was her boyfriend at the time, are being tried on charges of murder and sexual violence.

Robyn Carmel Butterworth told the packed courtroom that she was among several students waiting to talk to officers in Perugia’s police station shortly after Kercher’s bloodied body was found.

“I found Amanda’s behaviour very strange and I found it quite difficult to be around her,” said Butterworth. “She had no emotion. Everybody was upset and she didn’t seem to show any emotions.”

The witness said Knox and Sollecito were fooling around as they waited to see police. “I remember Amanda sticking her tongue out at Raffaele,” she said. “They were talking and joking, kissing and cuddling.”

Witness Amy Frost, who was also at the police station, said Knox “made faces”, such as crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out. She was “giggling” and kissing Sollecito, said Frost.

Both Knox and Sollecito have denied any wrongdoing. They have been jailed since a few days after the slaying.

The witnesses also testified what the defendants were saying at the police station.

According to Butterworth, Knox said: “How do you think I feel? I found her.” She quoted Knox as saying Kercher was “in the closet covered by a blanket”.

The witnesses testified there was a complicated relation between Kercher and Knox. They said Kercher complained that Knox didn’t always keep the bathroom clean and that Kercher was not comfortable with a bag of condoms and a vibrator kept by Knox in the bathroom they shared.

Knox said she wanted the pink, rabbit-shaped vibrator she kept in the house was a “joke”.