Rudy Hermann Guede, a suspect in the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, has claimed that Ms Kercher complained to him that Amanda Knox, her American flatmate, was a "drugged-up tart".

Tomorrow Mr Guede, the Ivory Coast immigrant who was extradited from Germany last week, will appear before a judge reviewing his detention. But Mr Guede, who is being held in the same prison as Ms Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, her Italian boyfriend, is not likely to be released on bail.

All are being held on suspicion of sexually assaulting and killing Ms Kercher, whose funeral takes place in the UK tomorrow. Mr Guede has admitted having sex with Meredith on the night of the murder but claims it was consensual and denies he had anything to do with her death.

In a memorandum written by hand while he was being held in Germany and leaked today to La Repubblica, he says that Ms Kercher had found money missing from the bedside drawer where she also kept her underwear. He said she had suggested to him that Ms Knox had taken it to pay for drugs.

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

• Kercher duo must stay in jail, judge says

• American Meredith suspect describes prison life

• Kercher suspect: I am innocent

In an interview this week with La Repubblica, conducted through her lawyer, Ms Knox denied reports that she and Ms Kercher had frequently quarrelled. She also attacked the media for portraying her as a "monster", and said she had liked Ms Kercher, who was "sweet and sensitive".

She added that she had been "stunned" by the murder, adding: "It's made me feel terrible that people think I killed Meredith...We were friends even if each of us had their own lives. It makes me feel terrible to think what happened to her. If I had been at home that evening perhaps I would also now be dead."

In the 25-page memorandum Mr Guede claimed he had been in the bathroom with stomach pains when the murderer entered the cottage which Ms Kercher and Ms Knox shared. He had heard "terrible screams" and on emerging had seen " a figure with his back to me in her bedroom. He turned round, it was an Italian man, I know this because he insulted me and did not have a foreign accent".

Mr Guede, who has Italian as well as Ivorian nationality, has lived in Perugia since the age of five and speaks perfect Italian with a local Umbrian accent.

He said the man had a knife in his hand "and tried to strike me with it. I tried to defend myself with my hand". The knife had been very sharp and had made a "small but deep cut" in his palm. Because he was still struggling to pull up his trousers he fell down, and while he was on the floor the assailant had rushed out of the house, saying "a black man found is a guilty man".

Alessandro Meluzzi, a psychiatrist retained by Mr Guede’s defence lawyers, said the document showed Mr Guede to be "a fragile youth, not aggressive and above all not violent". In the statement Mr Guede said he had knelt by Ms Kercher as she lay dying with "a river of blood" streaming from her throat. "I said to her, what happened?, and she repeated this sound - af, af, af"." He claimed he had tried to write this on the wall with the blood on his hand.

He said he had not assaulted Ms Kercher himself and could not have done because of his "respect for women". He had been brought up by his father and never knew his mother. He therefore regarded women as "sweet, affectionate mother figures". He claimed he had only gone to the house to talk to Ms Kercher, "though I won't hide the fact that I liked her".

He said he had met Ms Kercher at a Halloween party the night before she died, October 31, when she was wearing a vampire mask, and they had flirted and kissed. "That's why I wanted to see her the next day. She gave me the time and place of the rendezvous".

However friends of Ms Kercher have testifed that she watched a film with them before returning home at 9pm on 1 November because she was tired, without indicating that she had made a date with anyone.

Mr Guede claimed he had only met Ms Knox once, at Le Chic, the Perugia bar owned by Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese immigrant whom Ms Knox later accused of the murder but who was released for lack of evidence. In his memorandum Mr Guede writes: "Why Patrick? What is Amanda hiding? Did she accuse Patrick because the person who said to me "A black man found is a guilty man" thought I was Patrick?"

Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, said Mr Guede's statement appeared designed to throw suspicion on Mr Sollecito, since he described the assailant as an Italian "shorter than me, with brown hair", and because the name "Raffaele" contained the sound "af". However investigators suspect that Ms Knox and Mr Guede were involved in the killing, and that Ms Knox named Mr Lumumba as a decoy because he was black.

In the memorandum Mr Guede said he thought he could recognise the murderer if shown his photograph. When questioned on his arrival in Italy however he went back on this, saying he had not seen the murderer's face clearly.

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