Amanda Knox: insists she is innocent. Photo: AP
Amanda Knox's DNA was nowhere to be found in the bedroom in which Meredith Kercher was found stabbed to death, an Italian court heard on Monday.
On the first day of the American's retrial, the court in Florence was told that there was ample DNA evidence from Rudy Guede, the Ivorian drifter who is serving a 16-year jail sentence after being convicted of the sexual assault and murder of Miss Kercher, 21.
''How is it possible to find traces of Guede in enormous quantities but not a single trace of Amanda?'' Giulia Bongiorno, representing Miss Knox's ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 29, asked. ''How is it possible that the only trace of Raffaele, which naturally we contest, was on the bra strap?''
Tiny traces of Mr Sollecito's DNA were found on a strap torn from Miss Kercher's bra in the violent struggle that led to her death. But the strap was only discovered by forensic officers on the floor of the bedroom 47 days after the murder.
Defence lawyers maintain that it was subject to so much DNA contamination that it cannot be admitted as reliable.
The appeals court agreed yesterday to a prosecution request that fresh testing be carried out on a minute trace of DNA on the kitchen knife that was allegedly used to stab Miss Kercher to death. It had not been examined previously because forensic experts said it was too scant to produce reliable results. The handle of the knife bore traces of Miss Knox's DNA, but her lawyers said that was no surprise because it came from a kitchen drawer in her boyfriend's flat.
Alessandro Nencini, the judge in charge of the retrial, also agreed to hear testimony from Luciano Aviello, a member of the Camorra mafia, who has claimed that his brother killed Miss Kercher during a bungled robbery and that Miss Knox, now 26, is innocent.
As well as Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito, none of the Kercher family was in court for the retrial.
But her family sent a letter to the judge in which they said they were keen to see crucial pieces of evidence reviewed.
''We desperately want to discover the truth and to find justice for Meredith, who was taken away from us so brutally and unnecessarily,'' the family wrote.
''Nothing will bring back our beautiful Meredith, but we need to know what happened and she at least deserves the dignity of truth.''
Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found stabbed to death in her bedroom, in the house in Perugia she shared with Miss Knox and two young Italian women, in November 2007.
Miss Knox and her ex-boyfriend were found guilty of sexual assault and murder in 2009 but were then acquitted in 2011.
In March this year the Supreme Court in Rome ordered a retrial. The hearing was adjourned until Friday.
Telegraph, London
