Amanda Knox's ex Raffaele Sollecito opens up on lingering 'bitterness' ahead of Meredith Kercher documentary
PERUGIA, ITALY: Amanda Knox's ex Raffaele Sollecito has spoken out in a rare interview for a documentary on Meredith Kercher's murder. The documentary 'Who Murdered Meredith Kercher?' will be available on Paramount+ from August 25. Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher was a British student on exchange from the University of Leeds who was murdered at the age of 21 in Perugia, Italy.
On November 1, 2007, Kercher was found dead on her bedroom floor in a grisly crime scene. Bloodstained fingerprints at the scene were found to be those of Rudy Guede, but by the time they were identified, police had charged Kercher's American roommate, Amanda Knox, and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Knox and Sollecito's prosecutions received international publicity.
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Guede was tried separately in a fast-track procedure. He was found guilty in October 2008 of the sexual assault and murder of Kercher. Guede later exhausted the appeals process and subsequently began serving a 16-year sentence. In December 2020, an Italian court ruled that Guede could complete his term doing community service. He was released from prison last year.
Meanwhile, Knox and Sollecito were released after nearly four years following their acquittal. The two were reportedly acquitted at a second-level trial. In 2013, the appeals verdicts of acquittal were declared null, however, for "manifest illogicalities" by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy. The appeals trials, which had to be repeated, took place in Florence. Both of them were convicted yet again in 2014. However, in March 2015, their convictions were annulled by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Cassation ordered that no further trial should be held. They were thus acquitted and the case subsequently ended.
The ground-breaking new documentary will now explore why Knox and Sollecito had to serve time. The documentary will also examine evidence that has not been shared before. At the time of the murder, police were called to the crime scene by Sollecito, who has spoken up ahead of the documentary.
"Four years in prison. Six months of solitary confinement," Sollecito said, according to the Daily Mail. "And still today, I feel that bitterness even though I moved on with my life." He added, "I do regret that I was immature. But we were young. We were just, I mean, kind of foolish, things we didn't get what was what was going on. Your girlfriend's roommate is murdered, everyone could react in a different way."
After the murder, Sollecito was called into the police station for questioning. Officers found a flick-knife when they searched him. Although police ruled it out as the murder weapon, it did not help Sollecito as he protested his innocence. Calling it the "worst gaffe" he's ever made, Sollecito said, "It's very hard when somebody you care about is lost forever. But the truth is that I don't have anything to do with this murder. So I hope one day they will accept it."
After Kercher's murder, a funeral was held on December 14, 2007, at Croydon Minster, which was attended by more than 300 people. It was followed by a private burial at Mitcham Road Cemetery. A degree the slain student would have received in 2009 was awarded posthumously by the University of Leeds.
Of the murder, Dan Louw, commissioning editor of Paramount+, said, "No one has ever been held fully responsible for Meredith's tragic murder, and this new series for Paramount Plus brings a completely different perspective to one of the most infamous and misunderstood murder investigations of all time."