New evidence in Perugia murder appeal

Convicted child-killer Mario Alessi has told an Italian courtroom he has evidence that could clear Amanda Knox of killing 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox, from Seattle, Washington, and Kercher were both studying in Perugia and sharing a flat in November 2007 when Kercher was sexually assaulted and murdered.

Alessi was speaking at Knox's appeal hearing in Perugia against her conviction for murder. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2009.

Alessi said he had listened to a prison confession from an inmate with whom he shared a cell that made clear Knox, 23, had not been involved in Kercher's killing. He also claimed Knox's former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, who's serving a 16-year sentence for his part in the crime, had been wrongly convicted.

Alessi told the court that the inmate, Rudy Guede - the third person jailed for Kercher's killing - had confided in him that Knox and Sollecito were innocent.

That confession, he said, came when they were locked up together in Viterbo prison just before Knox's trial.

Alessi said Guede told him: "I don't know whether to tell the truth or not. The truth is altogether different from what you hear on TV." Alessi claimed Guede said one of his friends had killed Kercher, 21, after she refused to have threesome sex with them.

Guede was in the bathroom when his friend injured Kercher with a knife that "appeared out of nowhere", Alessi said. Guede said as he tried to save the struggling student, his unnamed friend told him they had to "finish" Kercher, otherwise they would "rot in jail".

Guede, 24, sentenced to 30 years, has denied talking to Alessi about the case.

Alessi, a bricklayer, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Tommaso Onofri, an 18-month-old boy killed after being abducted during a break-in at his parents' home in Parma five years ago.

Alessi is among five prisoners giving evidence during Knox's appeal. Another, Luciano Aviello, serving a 10-year jail sentence for Mafia-related crimes, claims his brother attacked Kercher while breaking in to her flat and he was asked to hide the knife.

Another witness, police informant Marco Castelluccio, said he too had heard Guede say while in prison that Knox and Sollecito weren't involved.

(Published by NZ Herald - June 20, 2011)