View Rudy Hermann Guede YouTube video

A drug dealer suspected of involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher was arrested yesterday after police tracked the use of his internet accounts to the German city of Mainz.

Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, who has joint Italian and Ivorian nationality, was arrested by German police after boarding a train without a ticket. He left Perugia after Ms Kercher’s murder nearly three weeks ago.

Police say Mr Guede’s fingerprints were found on Ms Kercher’s bloodsoaked pillow and on toilet paper at the cottage where the murder took place. It is also alleged that his DNA was found on the British student’s body. Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner in Perugia who had been held in custody, was released soon after Mr Guede’s arrest. His lawyer, Carlo Pacelli, said that Mr Lumumba had been made a scapegoat because he was black.

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

Multimedia

• Murder in Perugia

BACKGROUND

• Meredith Kercher: Q&A

• New DNA not from Meredith suspects

• Timings crucial to Kercher murder investigation

Related Links

• Fourth Meredith suspect is named

• Bleach bills at odds with Meredith evidence

• Arrest warrant for fourth Meredith suspect

Multimedia

• Video: fourth Meredith suspect

Mr Guede was arrested on a train between Mainz and Wiesbaden because he was found to be travelling without a ticket or identity papers. German transport police contacted Interpol and he was detained at Mainz pending extradition to Italy “within the next two or three days”.

Italian television said that Mr Guede had claimed to be on his way back to Italy to give himself up when arrested on the train. Police said that they doubted this. They said that he had used an internet point for “several hours” on Monday night, using the Skype communication system and Facebook, apparently unaware that Italian police were monitoring the web. One of his contacts was apparently persuaded to continue the web conversation from a police computer.

It emerged yesterday that, five days before the murder of Ms Kercher, Mr Guede was arrested in Milan in possession of a kitchen knife of the kind thought to have been used in the Perugia killing. He was detained after illegally spending the night in a Milan nursery school. He told police that he had taken the knife from the kitchen to protect himself against thieves.

The two other suspects in the case are Amanda Knox, an American student who shared the hillside cottage with Ms Kercher and two female Italian students, and Raffaele Sollecito, her Italian boyfriend.

The case against Mr Lumumba had rested largely on the testimony of Ms Knox, who told police that he had sexually assaulted and killed Ms Kercher. However, no trace of his DNA has been found at the cottage.

Mr Guede arrived in Perugia with his father at the age of 5. His father returned to Africa when he was 16, and he was informally adopted by Paolo Caporali, 62, a businessman whose company sponsored the local basketball team for which Mr Guede played.

Mr Caporali told La Repubblica: “He was like another son for us. I thought I could help him to build a future, but with the passing of time I realised I had made a mistake. He was a tremendous liar, saying he had been to school when he had skipped lessons and played video games all day.” The Times reported yesterday that Mr Guede had posted a video on YouTube, saying: “I’m a vampire, I’m Dracula. I’m gonna suck your blood.”

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