Knox branded a ‘diabolical she-devil’ in court

AMANDA KNOX, the American student convicted of killing her British roommate, is a “she-devil” who deliberately accused an innocent man to cover her own crime, a lawyer for the man unjustly implicated in the case said yesterday.

Knox was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Meredith Kercher while they were studying in Perugia in 2007, and sentenced to 26 years. She denies wrongdoing and has appealed the lower court’s verdict, issued in 2009.

Early in the probe, Knox accused Diya “Patrick” Lumumba of being the murderer. As a result of that claim, Lumumba was jailed for about two weeks — then cleared and freed.

Yesterday, Lumumba’s attorney, Carlo Pacelli, addressed the court hearing Knox’s appeal. Lumumba is a civil plaintiff in the case, and in Italy civil portions of cases are heard at the same time as the criminal matter.

Pacelli maintained that a double soul co-exists in the 24-year-old American.

“Both a (saint) and a demonic, satanic, diabolical she-devil, which leads her toward borderline behaviour. This was the Amanda of November 1, 2007,” the night of the murder.

He insists that, at the time of the crime, “she was an explosive mix of drugs, sex and alcohol.”

Kercher was stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with Knox.

Knox maintains police pressure led her to accuse Lumumba, a Congolese national who owned a bar in Perugia where the American occasionally worked.

A verdict in their appeals case is expected by next week. Knox and Sollecito hope to be freed after four years in jail; prosecutors have asked the court to increase the sentences of both to life in prison.