Former boyfriend of Amanda Knox tells Meredith Kercher murder retrial he is not ‘a ruthless killer’ and begs to be left to live a normal life

Sollecito and Knox spent four years in prison before aquittal

29-year-old says accusations against him are 'absurd'

The IT graduate says his life has been 'changed completely'

Raffaele Sollecito, the former boyfriend of Amanda Knox, has told a court spending time in prison was a 'nightmare' and begged jurors to give him his life back.



Sollecito broke down at the end of the court appearance in Florence, Italy, today as he denied that he and Knox murdered Meredith Kercher in an emotional 15-minute speech.



Today expert testimony during the trial says tests on the presumed murder weapon show a new DNA trace belongs to Knox, not victim Miss Kercher.



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Retrial: Raffaele Sollecito (right) sit in the courtroomin Florence, Italy, for the hearing of the retrial for the murder of Meredith Kercher The result bolsters the defense, which claims the knife was not the weapon used to kill British student Meredith Kercher. Another piece of DNA on the knife blade initially attributed to Miss Kercher was disputed on appeal.

Knox defense lawyer Carlo dalla Vedova said the evidence shows the knife was a simple kitchen knife used by Knox. Earlier evidence showed her DNA on the handle.

The expert testified today that the minute new trace showed 'considerable affinity' with Knox's DNA, while not matching those of Miss Kercher, Knox's co-defendant or an Ivorian man convicted in the 2007 murder.

Sollecito said he had been portrayed as a 'ruthless assassin' and said he had suffered since he and American student Knox were arrested after Miss Kercher’s body was found in the cottage she shared with Knox in Perugia. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

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'I have been described as a ruthless killer but I am nothing of the sort," said Mr Sollecito, wearing khaki trousers and a brown pullover, the Telegraph reports.



The accusations against them were 'absurd', he said during his first appearance at the appeals trial.



Sollecito, 29, said the four years he spent in prison after being convicted of murder and sexual assault was something he would not wish 'on anyone in the world'. The IT graduate and Knox drew attention for their behaviour after the Leed's University student's death in November 2007.



Sollecito said Knox was his first love and he had met her at a classical music contest ten days before Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was murdered.



'In Perugia I dedicated myself to my studies, which were very tough, but in the meantime I met Amanda. She was my first true love – I started rather late,' Mr Sollecito told the judge and jury.



He admitted smoking marijuana occasionally but said he had grown up in a respectable family in Bari, Southern Italy and had never been in trouble with the law before he was arrested in connection with the murder of the 21-year-old student.



Murdered: Meredith Kercher, left, was killed at the home she shared with Amanda Knox, right, in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Knox was convicted of the murder but later acquitted on appeal



'Nightmare': Raffaele Sollecito (left) and his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno in the courtroom in Florence, Italy. He said his time in prison has changed his life

Hearing: Raffaele Sollecito, right, stands up with his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, left. Knox and Sollecito's 2009 conviction of murdering Kercher was overturned on appeal in 2011, freeing her to return to the United States. Knox has not returned to Italy for the latest trial

Prison: Sollecito, right, kisses his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno during the hearing. Sollecito spent four years in prison before he was acquitted

Sollecito said his life was 'quiet and normal life' and neither he or Knox realised how serious the situation they were in was after Miss Kercher's death.

They had been living in a 'little fairy tale', he told the court. 'I didn’t take things seriously enough at the start,' said Sollecito, who flew back to Italy for the hearing from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, where he was on holiday.



Prosecutors allege that Mr Sollecito and Miss Knox, together with Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer in Perugia, attacked Miss Kercher to a frenzied assault in her bedroom on the night of Nov 1 during a group sex game.



Sollecito said he did not know Guede, who is serving 16 years in jail after being convicted, and that he barely knew Miss Kercher. 'I never knew Guede. We had two very different lives,' he added.

He and Knox spent four years in prison until they were aquitted by an appeals court in 2011.

'I was thrown into a maximum security prison. I wouldn’t wish on anyone in the world the experience that I had to go through,' he said. 'It was a nightmare that went beyond any imagination.'

Raffaele Sollecito's lawyer Giulia Bongiorno speaks to the media at the end of a hearing in an appeals court in Florence, Italy

Raffaele Sollecito's lawyer Luca Maori arrives at the appeals court (left) and Kercher family lawyer Francesco Maresca (right) was also at the hearing

Not guilty: Sollecito told the court there was not 'the slightest foundation' of guilt when he appeared at Florence's Justice Palace, Italy

He told the court there was not 'the slightest foundation' of guilt. As he fought back tears in the dock, Sollecito said: 'My life has changed completely because of this'



He said he had tried to start a career in IT but no businesses would hire him. He also said the intense media glare over the last six years had changed his life.



Sollecito added: 'My life has been judged by everyone, even the most banal, ordinary things.'



He asked the judge and jury to find him innocent and to restore normality to his life 'because at the moment I don’t have a life.'



The trial was adjourned until Monday, November 25. A verdict is expected in January.

House: The house in Perugia, Italy, where Meredith Kercher was killed















