Kercher father attacks Knox film

THE father of Meredith Kercher has criticised a television film showing her screaming in terror as her killers pin her down.

John Kercher said the production — which shows his daughter being grabbed by actors playing Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede — was “absolutely horrific”.

The images have been released in a trailer for the film, which will air on US channel Lifetime on February 21.

Kercher said: “To actually see it like this is very distressing. The scenes are absolutely horrific. It’s awful what these film people have done.”

The 21-year-old British murder victim, from Coulsdon, Surrey, is played by actress Amanda Fernando Stevens, while Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is cast as Amanda Knox.

The attractive young American, dubbed Foxy Knoxy, is shown in a romantic tussle with her then lover Sollecito, then caged behind the bars of a police van.

In another scene the victim’s body is shown partially covered by a duvet on her bedroom floor, just as she was found in the cottage she shared with Knox on her year abroad in Perugia, Italy.

The movie, called Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial In Italy, is billed as being “based on a true story” and comes with the tagline: “There are two sides to every story.”

The blurb reads: “Knox was painted as an oversexed, remorseless killer during her two-year trial leading up to her conviction and subsequent sentencing to 26 years in jail.”

Clips in the trailer show Knox’s on-screen mother, Edda Mellas, saying: “She’s kind, she’s gentle,” while an actor playing Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, the barman Knox falsely accused of the killing, seethes: “She’s evil.”

The film poses the question of whether Knox committed the crime in November 2007 or was herself a victim.

Its screening comes in the middle of her appeal process which, if successful, could result in her guilty verdict being overturned or her sentence being slashed.