Kercher jurors shown graphic video

12 April 2012

A court in Italy has been shown graphic video footage of the crime scene where British student Meredith Kercher was killed.

American student Amanda Knox looked away and bowed her head when the video was screened in the Perugia courtroom.

Miss Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito both deny murdering the Leeds University student from Coulsdon, south London.

Miss Knox had been exchanging smiles and whispers with Mr Sollecito from a distance, but she turned sombre when a prosecution witness aired videos showing the blood-splattered room, Miss Kercher's face and her foot sticking out from a duvet.

Miss Kercher's body was found on November 2 2007 in the apartment she shared with Amanda Knox.

Prosecutors allege she was killed during what began as a sex game, with Mr Sollecito holding her by the shoulders from behind while Miss Knox touched her with the point of a knife.

Prosecutors have alleged that a third man, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, tried to sexually assault Miss Kercher and then Miss Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat. Guede was convicted of the murder in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

At Thursday's hearing, the head of the investigating forensic unit insisted that there was no sign of contamination of evidence collected at the crime scene.

Prosecutors say they found Mr Sollecito's DNA on the clasp of the victim's bra, although his defence team says the bra bore multiple DNA traces and maintain the evidence might have been inadvertently contaminated during the investigation.

Official Alberto Intini, who did not take part in the two inspections that were carried out by the forensics, rejected defence lawyers' allegations. "In this probe, we did not find any traces of anyone intervening," he testified.

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