I'm not violent: Meredith accused

Feb 6 2009

A man accused of murdering British exchange student Meredith Kercher when she refused to take part in a sex game has insisted he is not violent and told a a court: "I find it hard to kill a fly."

Italian Raffaele Sollecito, 24, said: "I have nothing to do with this case. I'm not a violent person. People who know me know that I find it hard to kill a fly."

Miss Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead in her bedroom in the house in Perugia, Italy, which she shared with Sollecito's ex-lover Amanda Knox and others during her year abroad. Her throat had been slit and her semi-naked body was partially covered by a duvet.

Sollecito, who wore a cream polo neck jumper and a green jacket, told the packed courtroom in Perugia: "It's difficult to define the situation I'm in but it seems completely unreal. I don't know why I'm still in this situation. I'm the victim of a judicial error."

He described his relationship with his ex-lover and co-defendant, 21-year-old American Knox, as "sentimental".

The first witness, police chief Filippo Batolozzi, said Miss Kercher's two mobile phones were found in a neighbour's garden after her death. The neighbour had called police after a receiving a hoax warning that there was a bomb in her house, he said.

During a search of the garden, police found one of the phones and the neighbour later found the second, he added. When the phones were found to belong to Miss Kercher, officers were sent to her house to investigate, the court was told.

Michele Battistelli, a police officer who was sent to the cottage, said Knox and Sollecito looked "surprised" when police arrived on the murder scene. The door to Miss Kercher's room was broken down and he said the inside was "covered in blood". It looked as if there had been an attempt to fake a break-in, he added.

A third person charged with the murder, Rudy Guede, 21, from the Ivory Coast, was found guilty in October last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison after a fast-track trial.

The full trial, which began last month and will be held in stages, is expected to last until at least the summer.