A judge is expected today to tell the family of Meredith Kercher, the British student murdered in Perugia nearly a month ago, whether her funeral can go ahead or whether a second autopsy is necessary.

Claudia Matteini, the investigating judge in charge of the case, held a closed hearing yesterday to decide whether a further post mortem examination of Ms Kercher's remains was necessary to determine the time of death more precisely. The Kercher family was represented at the hearing by Francesco Maresca, their Italian lawyer. Ms Kercher's funeral in Britain has been delayed pending the decision.

Ms Kercher's body was flown back to Britain on November 12. Dr Luca Lalli, the pathologist who conducted the post mortem, has said he sees no need for a second one.

Mr Maresca said that he had asked the judge to make a quick decision for the sake of the Kercher family, which was "just waiting" to be able to have a funeral.

"The wait has obviously been extremely painful for them," he said.

"They are anxious to have a funeral as quickly as possible and are finding it difficult to cope with this length of time."

Ms Kercher, an exchange student from Leeds University attending the Perugia University for Foreigners, was sexually assaulted and murdered on the night of November 1 at the house she shared with Amanda Knox, an American student from Seattle, and two Italian women students. Her throat was cut.

Ms Knox, 20, her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 23, and Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, an Ivorian with joint Italian nationality are suspected of involvement in the killing. Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito are in prison at Perugia, and Mr Guede is awaiting extradition from Germany, where he was arrested last week while on the run. All deny killing Ms Kercher.

A fourth man, a Congolese bar owner and musician, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, 38, was released last week for lack of evidence but is said to remain under investigation. Last night he appeared on an Italian television chat show to deny that he had told British Sunday newspapers he had been physically mistreated by Italian police, saying he had only told reporters he had felt "humiliated" at being arrested on a false accusation.

The request for a second post mortem was originally made by Mr Lumumba's lawyers since the time of death was crucial to his alibi, namely that he had been at his bar in the evening The time of Ms Kercher's death was originally said to be between midnight and two am, but this was later revised to between ten and midnight after analysis of the contents of her stomach, showing food had been only partially digested.

Two women friends with whom she spent the early part of the evening have said they ate a supper of pizza and ice cream at about six pm before watching a film, and that Ms Kercher went home alone at about 9 pm.

Since Mr Lumumba's release police suspicion has switched to Mr Guede, who admits that he was at Ms Kercher's house on the evening of the murder. He claims however that the "real killer" was an Italian "shorter than me, with brown hair ", who he did not know and who attacked Ms Kercher while he was in the bathroom.

It emerged today that Mr Guede has told his Italian defence lawyers that the mysterious assailant - whom Ms Kercher allegedly tried to name with her dying breath by uttering the sound "af" - wielded the knife with his left hand.

La Stampa said Mr Guede appeared to be trying to implicate Raffaele Sollecito, although it was not known whether the Italian student was left handed, "or at least ambidextrous". Francesco Sollecito, Mr Sollecito's father, a urologist from Bari in southern Italy, said he would today give police "expert evidence" to prove that none of the knives owned by his son were compatible with the murder weapon.

He said his son - who has asked to speak to investigators later this week for the first time since his arrest - had been "consistent" in his assertions that he was not at the cottage on the night of the murder but at his own flat. "The only thing he does not remember exactly is whether Amanda was with him the whole night or whether she went out and came back", Dr Sollecito told Italian TV.

He said Raffaele was confused because he had smoked cannabis that evening. "I did not know he did this, but I do know he never used hard drugs", Dr Sollecito said. Ms Knox has claimed that Mr Sollecito told her he had used "cocaine and acid".

The results are expected this week of forensic tests on Ms Kercher's blood-stained bra, and on used chewing gum found on the wardrobe in Ms Kercher's bedroom.

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