Closing speeches continue in Kercher trial

If Amanda Knox is convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, her family will not give up their battle to free her, her mother said today.

Knox, 22, from Seattle in the US, is on trial alongside her Italian former lover, Raffaele Sollecito, 25, for killing the Leeds University student in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007.

Prosecutors allege that Sollecito held 21-year-old Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, down while Knox stabbed her after what began as an extreme sex game.

Knox’s mother, Edda Mellas, said: “Amanda is innocent and if she is found guilty we will carry on fighting.”

She added that the last two years, during which Knox has been kept behind bars, had been hard but she was hopeful her daughter would be freed in a few days’ time.

A verdict in the trial is expected later this week.

The closing speeches in the trial continued today with lawyer Manuela Comodi completing the summing up of the prosecution’s case.

Ms Comodi likened the case to the story of the Three Little Pigs.

The arguments made by Knox and Sollecito’s defence lawyers were like the first two houses in the story which fell down because they were so flimsy while the prosecution’s case was strong enough to remain standing, like the third house in the tale.

Addressing the puzzling question of what could have motivated the crime, she said: “Why did they do it? I often ask myself that.

“We live in an age of violence with no motive. We don’t know what sparks these things.”

She cited DNA evidence allegedly linking Sollecito to the crime and demonstrated with a white bra how his DNA could have ended up on Miss Kercher's bra strap and not on the rest of the bra.

She wrapped the bra around a microphone in the Perugia courtroom to show the court what she meant, repeating a similar re-enactment she had done in a preliminary hearing last year.

Sollecito then stood up and told the court: “I am not violent, I never have been. I wasn’t at the house (where Miss Kercher lived and died) that night.”

In his response to the defence lawyers' summing up speeches, Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family's lawyer, told the court that Miss Kercher was killed because a point of no return had been reached.

Knox, Sollecito and a third man who has already been convicted of the murder, Rudy Guede, had gone so far with torturing her that they had to kill her, he said.

“Meredith was killed because she knew all three of her attackers,” he said, indicating that the three knew that they could not get away with what they had done so far.

He added: “The murder happened step by step, (it started with) sexual violence and then murder.”

He cited Knox and Sollecito’s behaviour as evidence of their guilt.

“Is the behaviour of Amanda Knox at the police station logical when Meredith’s body was still warm?” he said.

“Is it logical to say that this murder was carried out by just one person? Is it logical that these young people had their phones switched off on that night when young people usually have their phones on the whole time?

“Is it logical to blame someone else?”

Knox reportedly turned a cartwheel at the police station when she was waiting to be questioned by police about the murder of her housemate and then pointed the finger at local barman Patrick Lumumba during her interrogation.

Mr Maresca suggested these were not the actions of an innocent woman.

Sollecito said, however, that no motive had emerged for his alleged role in the murder.

He added: “If Amanda had asked me to do something I didn’t agree with, I would have said no. So imagine if she had asked me to do something as terrible as killing a girl.”