Rudy Hermann Guede, the Ivory Coast immigrant suspected of sexually assaulting and killing Meredith Kercher in Perugia, went dancing at a disco after her murder until 4.30 in the morning,

Witnesses have testified to police that they saw Mr Guede at the Domus disco from 2am onwards on Friday, November 2.

Miss Kercher was assaulted and murdered on the evening of November 1 at the whitewashed hillside cottage that she shared with Amanda Knox, an American student, and two female Italian students.

Mr Guede, who has admitted that he had sex with Miss Kercher but claims he is not the "real killer", is being held in Germany awaiting extradition to Italy on suspicion of the murder.

He referred to the fact that he went dancing after Miss Kercher was killed in internet chat with friends, intercepted by police before his capture in Germany last week.

In testimony to German police and his Italian defence lawyers. Mr Guede has said that he met Miss Kercher shortly after 8.30pm at the cottage on the night of the murder for consensual sex, but that "an Italian man" he did not know followed them in and killed her while he was in the bathroom.

In his latest account to his lawyers, reported in Italian newspapers today, Mr Guede - the only one of three suspects to admit unconditionally that he was at the house on the evening of the murder - said he and Miss Kercher had "flirted", but that she had said they could not have sex because he did not have a condom. He then went to the toilet because he had eaten a "spicy kebab" which had given him stomach pains.

He said that he failed to hear an intruder come into the house because he had iPod earphones in his ears playing at full volume. He had listened to three songs while in the bathroom - lasting about 12 minutes - and only at the end of the third song had he heard Miss Kercher scream, he is reported to have told police.

Mr Guede allegedly says he emerged to find a man "with brown hair and shorter than me" holding a knife. They briefly fought, and Mr Guede suffered a cut to the palm of his right hand "as I was trying to protect myself". The assailant had uttered "racist" insults as he left, including "A black man found is a black man condemned".

Mr Guede reportedly said that his efforts to save Miss Kercher failed, but he heard her dying words, which were either the initials "AF" or the sound "af".

La Stampa said that the latter version could be an attempt to point the finger of blame at Raffaele Sollecito, Ms Knox's Italian boyfriend. Both are in prison on suspicion of involvement in her death. The paper said however that even if Mr Guede was telling the truth and had not killed Ms Kercher, it was still "very strange behaviour" to go dancing at a disco and leave her to bleed to death instead of calling the police or emergency services.

La Repubblica said police pathologists had found the "deeeply imprinted" marks of three fingers and a thumb in Miss Kercher's throat, confirming the theory that an attempt was made to strangle her before she was killed with a knife. Her jaw bone was fractured. A witness has told police that a "coloured man" running from the direction of the cottage at about 10.30pm barged so violently into her boyfriend that he nearly knocked him over.

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