THE American student suspected of killing her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia has suggested her Italian boyfriend may have raped the student and stabbed her in the throat.

In a prison diary, Amanda Knox, 20, claims she had been at her boyfriend’s apartment smoking cannabis and was asleep when 21-year-old Kercher was murdered in their cottage.

Turning on Raffaele Sollecito for the first time, Knox speculates that he may have used one of the knives he collected to kill Kercher, and then tried to frame her as the murderer.

Knox, from Seattle, and Sollecito, 23, are being held on suspicion of sexually abusing and killing Kercher at her whitewashed cottage in the Umbrian hilltown of Perugia on November 1.

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

• American Meredith suspect describes prison life

• Meredith 'shared meal with her killers'

The 125-page diary, entitled La Mia Prigione (My Prison), and handwritten mainly in English, also describes life in prison and includes songs and poems.

The diary, which Knox began three weeks ago, was seized on Thursday from her cell, which she shares with two other prisoners. It is now being translated.

Knox, going back on an earlier confession, denies being in the cottage on the night of the murder. She adds that if she had been there, “perhaps Meredith wouldn’t be dead”.

The American, who called herself “Foxy Knoxy” on her MySpace website, insists she was at Sollecito’s home. She had met the engineering student two weeks earlier at a concert.

In the flat, she smoked cannabis and fell asleep. “This could have happened: Raffaele went to Meredith’s house, raped her and killed her and then, having come back home, pressed my fingerprints — I was asleep — onto the knife,” she says. She speculates that he then washed off the blood. Investigators have found traces of Knox’s DNA near the handle of a knife found in Sollecito’s home, and of Kercher’s on the blade. “But if that’s how things went, I don’t understand why Raffaele did it,” Knox writes.

Knox makes no reference to the two other suspects, Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, from the Ivory Coast, who is awaiting extradition from Germany, and the Congolese bar owner Diya Lumumba, 44; the latter has been released from custody.

Knox describes Kercher as “a smart and elegant girl” who gave her advice, including on whom she should make friends with. Kercher’s friends have testified that she complained about the men Knox brought home.

Of her days in prison, Knox says: “I sing, I write and when I go out for a walk I sun myself and I’ve got a bit of a tan.”

A senior investigator said yesterday a conversation between Knox and her parents, recorded without their knowledge on November 17, indicated that Knox was at her home on the night of the killing.

According to the 11-page transcript, Knox said the previous day was “bad” — the television news called her a liar. Knox’s mother tries to reassure her. Knox replies: “It’s stupid; I can’t say anything else. I was there and I can’t lie about this.” Her lawyers, however, said she was referring to Sollecito’s flat.

Knox protests that other inmates stared at her as if she was “a horrible being”. She adds: “My cell is cold and I’ve got a headache. I feel better only during my walk, I can sing and even shout and that makes me feel good.”

A court hearing on Friday rejected pleas from both Knox and Sollecito for their release.

Knox’s accusation against Sollecito contrasts with his treatment of her. In a notebook he wrote in jail, he said he did not believe Knox could have murdered Kercher, but has also testified that he thinks Knox may not have spent the night at his flat.

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