An Italian man held on suspicion of killing Meredith Kercher has described his intense relationship with Amanda Knox, the American student also suspected of being involved in the murder of the 21-year-old Briton.

In interviews with Italian newspapers conducted from prison, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, said that he never wanted to see Ms Knox again. “If I am here it’s her fault above all,” he said, answering questions through his lawyer.

Ms Kercher was found semi-naked in her bedroom with her throat cut, on November 2. Italian police believe that Ms Knox held Ms Kercher down while Mr Sollecito and a second man, Patrick Diya Lumumba, sexually assaulted her.

Mr Sollecito said that he had been attracted to Ms Knox from the moment that they met in early October. The computer science student said: “I liked her face, her way of walking and laughing, above all her sweet nature.” He said that they had slept together on the first evening that they met and she had moved in with him.

New witness 'saw Meredith suspects together'

Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede were see at the house in Perugia where the American student died

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• Murder in Perugia

BACKGROUND

• Meredith Kercher: Q&A

• New DNA not from Meredith suspects

• Timings crucial to Kercher murder investigation

Related Links

• Meredith or Madeleine: it's trial by media

• Timings crucial to Kercher murder investigation

He said that he did not know Mr Lumumba well and had only seen him when he went to pick Ms Knox up after work at Le Chic, the bar run by the Congolese national. Mr Sollecito said that he had met Ms Kercher when Ms Knox fetched clothes from their cottage. The two women were on bad terms, he said, and had argued over domestic matters. Mr Sollecito added that he deeply regretted having smoked cannabis and that it had accounted for his confused accounts to police. He refused to discuss the day of the murder, apart from repeating his claim that he spent the evening at home, alone.

A student from the University of Leeds, who was one of the last people to see Ms Kercher alive, said that she had no plans to meet anyone else on the night that she was murdered. Robyn Butterworth watched a film at her flat with Ms Kercher and another friend, Sophie Purton, at about 6pm, before Ms Kercher returned home alone.

She said: “When Meredith left the flat she never said she was going to meet anyone. I think I can safely say that if Meredith was intending to have sex with someone she would have told me so.”

In a leaked witness testimony Ms Butterworth said that she had found the behaviour of Ms Knox “very strange” after the body was found. She said that she met the American in the waiting room of the police station in Perugia. “She acted as if she was not in the least upset. She was speaking in a loud voice in English to all those present,” Ms Butterworth said.

Luca Maori, one of the lawyers for Mr Sollecito, told The Times that preliminary tests on shoes and knives found in Mr Sollecito’s possession showed no trace of blood, though this was not “absolutely certain”. Police have claimed that his Nike trainers were compatible with a bloody footprint found in Ms Kercher’s room and that his pocket knife could have inflicted the fatal wound to her neck. Definitive results are expected tomorrow.

Tests are also under way on blood-smeared hairs that were found in the hand of Ms Kercher and could belong to her killer.

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