Amanda Knox, the American suspect in the murder of Meredith Kercher, is “turning to religion”, according to the chaplain at the prison where she is being held, who said that they had discussed the Resurrection.

The Italian press has singled out Ms Knox, 20, as the main suspect in the case, describing her as a woman with “the face of an angel but ice-cold eyes”. La Stampa called her “the Dark Lady of Seattle”.

But she had been visited by nuns as well as by Father Saulo Scarabattoli, the chaplain at the prison outside Perugia where the three suspects are being held in isolation from each other. He said that his impression was that Ms Knox, who was brought up a Catholic but claims “not to believe in anything”, was “turning to religion”.

She has a copy of the Gospel of St Mark by her bed and has told the priest that she bitterly regrets her “wild” lifestyle and will change her ways. She had vowed never to use drugs again, Father Scarabattoli said.

He said: “If I had met her on the outside I would never have imagined her capable of doing what she is accused of.” They had discussed “not the news of the day” in her cell but, rather, “philosophy, history and the meaning of life”. He described her as a “fragile young woman” and said that he had advised her not to watch the news on the television provided in the cell.

Father Scarabattoli said that Ms Knox had asked to attend Mass at the prison but that her request had been refused because she was not allowed contact with other prisoners, apart from an Italian woman with whom she was sharing a cell and who was also accused of murder.

He said that although she had attended a Jesuit school in the US, Ms Knox had told him that she did not believe in anything and had had no religious education. Father Scarabattoli said that Ms Knox was “looking for meaning in her life. I told her that life was like a train journey in which you are heading for a station immersed in fog and all the passengers have different expectations.”

He said that he had given her a copy of the Italian Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana with a commentary on a passage by St Luke on the Resurrection. “She asked me what the Resurrection was,” the priest said, adding that he would take her a copy of the Gospels on his next visit.

He said that they spoke in Italian, which Ms Knox studied in the US before arriving in Italy. However, she had asked for an Italian-English dictionary to look up unfamiliar Italian words.

Father Cesare Piazzoli, another priest who visits the prison to offer spiritual comfort, said that he had spoken to Raffaele Sollecito, Ms Knox’s Italian boyfriend, and had found to him to be “a young man of faith” who held to “certain values”.

A report issued by Judge Claudia Matteini alleges that Ms Kercher was sexually abused by Ms Knox, Mr Sollecito and Diya “Patrick” Lumumba before being stabbed in the throat.

Ms Knox has changed her version of events several times. Last weekend she told her mother, Edda Mellas, who visited her in prison, that she had told the truth when first questioned by police, telling them that she had been at Mr Sollecito's flat all night.

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