Amanda Knox, who was convicted but then acquitted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, has written a detailed account of how a lesbian inmate tried to seduce her during her years behind bars.

The idea of straight women in prison resorting to lesbian relationships “brings out the horny teenage boy in many of us,” but sexual bonds were often a reflection of a desperate yearning for companionship in a brutal environment, Miss Knox wrote.

She was incarcerated in Capanne prison in Umbria, between 2007 and 2011 after being initially found guilty by the Italian judicial system of killing and sexually assaulting Miss Kercher, her flat-mate, who was from Surrey.

Both young women were taking a year out from their university courses at home to study at the University for Foreigners in the medieval walled town of Perugia.