Knox and Sollecito murdered Meredith Kercher on impulse, say Italian judges

Amanda Knox, the American student convicted for the murder of Meredith Kercher, killed impulsively and nursed no ill will towards her victim, two Italian judges have ruled. In a 427-page document released today explaining why they gave Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito sentences of 26 and 25 years last December, the judges wrote: "It was a murder without planning, without any animosity or grudge against the victim." British student Kercher, 21, was found semi-naked with her throat slashed in November 2007 in the cottage she shared in Perugia with Knox. The judges, Giancarlo Massei and Beatrice Cristiani, ruled that Kercher's brutal murder was the result of "purely casual contingencies", starting with a chance meeting between the jailed pair and Rudy Guede, the Ivory Coast-born drifter who was also convicted for the killing. The three returned to the cottage to find Kercher alone, whereupon Guede began sexually assaulting Kercher, the judges wrote. Knox and Sollecito "backed up" Guede, becoming "the aggressors and killers" of Kercher, with no more motive than "erotic, sexual violence". Knox, 22, and Sollecito, 25, are depicted as impressionable and unused to living away from the protection of their families. "The prospect of helping Rudy subjugate Meredith to abuse her sexually could have appeared exciting and, even if unexpected, worth experimenting." Throwing a duvet over Kercher's corpse was a clear sign of regret, the judges added. The ruling is in marked contrast to the depiction of Knox given during her trial by prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who claimed the student from Seattle was seeking revenge after Kercher criticised her habit of bringing boys home, and initiated the assault, with Guede joining in. The judges, however, said they were convinced by the material evidence produced by prosecutors, including the alleged discovery of Kercher's DNA on a knife at Sollecito's flat and Sollecito's DNA on Kercher's torn bra clasp. The evidence was "without holes or inconsistencies" and led to the convictions "as a necessary and strictly consequential outcome," the document stated. Luca Maori, a lawyer for Sollecito, said today the sentence would be "disputed point by point". This autumn Knox and Sollecito, who have denied involvement, are expected to start the first of two appeals permitted under Italian law. "I pray to God every day that he illuminates the judges and sheds light on this horrible affair," Sollecito said in a statement.