Image via WikipediaAmanda Knox appeal hears witness was offered sex change cash for evidenceHectic scenes in Italian appeal by two of Meredith Kercher's convicted killers as lawyers swap claims of corrupt evidence
Amanda Knox sits in Perugia's court of appeal during her appeal with Raffaele Sollecit against their convictions for murdering British flatmate Meredith Kercher in 2007. Photograph: Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Rudy Guede, the man convicted of killing Meredith Kercher in 2007, has told an Italian court that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito murdered the British student, the first time he has made such an accusation before a judge.
Guede, 24, who has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing the student, was called to testify at the appeal being mounted in Perugia by Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito against their convictions for taking part in the murder.
After entering the court room in handcuffs and without looking once at Knox, Guede confirmed the contents of a letter he wrote from jail last year, in which he claimed he was not involved in the "horrible murder of the splendid and wonderful Meredith Kercher by Knox and Sollecito".
"This is the thought I have always had in my mind," said Guede in court.
Sitting five metres from Guede, an emotional Knox tried to address him, but Guede was hustled from the court room by his police escort before she was allowed to rise and tell the court she was "shocked and anguished" by his accusation. "He knows we were not there and were not involved … I wish I could tell him mistakes can be corrected by telling the truth," she said.
"Raffaele Sollecito, Guede and I have only been in the same place in a court," she added.
After the hearing, Knox's mother Edda Mellas said her daughter, who has been sentenced to 26 years, was determined to address Guede after last seeing him in court two years ago. "Amanda wanted to stand up and tell him to tell the truth," she said. "He had a chance to do something good and didn't."
Kercher, 21, was found lying in a pool of blood with her throat slashed in the apartment she shared with Knox, a student from Seattle, after what prosecutors believe was a sex game gone wrong. After his DNA and fingerprints were found at the scene, Guede was arrested and has now exhausted his appeals.
Before his arrest, he told a friend Knox was not present at the murder, but then, during his first appeal, claimed he had been in the bathroom during the attack, emerging to hear Knox's voice and seeing an unidentified man leaving the scene.
Sollecito, 27, who is serving 25 years, also addressed the court on Monday, stating: "Amanda Knox and I have been fighting against shadows and voices for four years."
Guede was called to testify after a fellow inmate at Viterbo prison, child murderer Mario Alessi, claimed Guede told him Knox and Sollecito were innocent. On Monday Guede denied the claim, calling it "the blasphemy of a sick mind".
The hearing then took a surreal turn as two prosecution witnesses accused a defence lawyer of offering to pay a witness for a sex change in return for favourable testimony.
Luciano Aviello, an inmate from Naples, has previously told the court that Kercher was killed not by Guede, Knox or Sollecito, but by his own brother during a burglary gone wrong. On Monday a fellow inmate of Aviello's called by the prosecution said Aviello had told him he had been offered €70,000 (£62,000) by Giulia Bongiorno, an Italian MP and a lawyer defending Sollecito, to invent the story.
Cosimo Zaccari, who is in jail for fraud, libel, criminal conspiracy and receiving stolen goods, said Aviello had confided in him that "I was contacted to create confusion in the trial".
Zaccari was followed onto the stand by Alexander Ilicet, a Montenegrin who shared a cell with Aviello and claimed the Neapolitan had boasted of being offered €158,000 by Bongiorno, which he planned to use for a sex change.
Monday's hearing marked the last time witnesses will be heard in the appeal before a review of DNA evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito is completed on Thursday and examined by the court at the next hearing on 25 July.
Defence lawyers say DNA traces from Knox and Kercher found on a knife were too weak to be conclusive.
