Clues point to Knox guilt

 

All clues" point to Amanda Knox's guilt in the murder of Coulsdon student Meredith Kercher, prosecutors have said as they urged jurors in her appeal to consider the victim's family. Making his closing speech, prosecutor Giancarlo Costagliola denounced an "obsessive media campaign" for stoking sympathy for American Knox. The 24-year-old was sentenced in 2009 to 26 years in prison for killing the British student, along with her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 26, who was jailed for 25 years. But media coverage has made "everyone feel like the parents of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito", Mr Costagliola said as their appeal process entered its final stage. Addressing a packed courtroom in the Italian town of Perugia, where the murder took place four years ago, he said: "As you make your decision, I wish that you jurors feel a little bit like the parents of Meredith Kercher, a serious, studious girl whose life was taken by these two kids from good families." He added: "All clues converge toward the only possible result of finding the defendants guilty." The closing speeches began after Miss Kercher's grieving family lamented that she had been "completely forgotten" in the years since her death. The 21-year-old's sister, Stephanie Kercher, expressed regret that the media had become focused solely on Knox and Sollecito. Speaking on Italian television show Porta a Porta this week, she said: "In these four years, Meredith has been completely forgotten. But we need to find justice for her, we need to find the truth for her." University of Leeds student Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found dead on November 2, 2007 in her bedroom at the house in the Umbrian hilltop town she shared with Knox and others. Her throat had been slit and her semi-naked body was partially covered by a duvet. Prosecutors claimed Knox, from Seattle, and Sollecito, from the southern Italian city of Bari, killed her in a bungled sex game. Both have strenuously protested their innocence from behind bars. A verdict in the appeal is expected at the end of this month or early next month. Ivory Coast-born drifter and small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede was also jailed for the murder after being prosecuted in a separate, fast-track trial. Italy's highest criminal court has upheld his conviction and his 16-year-prison sentence.