Cellmates of Amanda Knox, the American student suspected of involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia last November, have pleaded with prison authorities to stop her repeatedly singing the Beatles' song Let it Be at the top of her voice.

Father Scarabattoli, the prison chaplain at Perugia, said that Ms Knox, 20, from Seattle, had asked for a guitar so that she could play the song as well a sing it, but this had been refused. Inmates have complained that Ms Knox sings the song all day long, with one jailer reported as agreeing with them that it "drives you mad".

However, Father Scarabattoli said that she sang the song only at exercise time, in the open air, and he insisted that it had a "spiritual dimension" since it referred to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Ms Knox, who attended a Jesuit school, has been receiving religious instruction from the chaplain and reading the Bible.

The lyrics to Let it Be run: "When I find myself in times of trouble / mother Mary comes to me / speaking words of wisdom, / let it be. / And in my hour of darkness / she is standing right in front of me, / speaking words of wisdom, / let it be."

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

• New DNA not from Meredith suspects

• New witness 'saw Meredith suspects together'

• Bloodstains 'put Knox at murder scene'

It concludes: "And when the night is cloudy / there is still a light that shines on me / shine until tomorrow, / let it be. / I wake up to the sound of music, / mother Mary comes to me, / speaking words of wisdom, / let it be."

Ms Knox, her Italian former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast immigrant with joint Italian nationality, all remain in prison in Perugia pending charges. They can be held for up to a year before a trial is held.

Ms Knox's parents have started a campaign to counteract what they say is the distorted image presented by the media of their daughter as a "cold-eyed killer with the face of an angel" who indulged in an orgy of sex and drugs once in Italy and free of parental control. They have retained Joe Tacopina, a leading Italian-American lawyer, to try to demolish the case against Ms Knox.

Italian reports said that if the case came to trial Ms Knox's defence would argue that the crime scene had been altered by police, with objects such as Ms Kercher's mattress moved, and that while the kitchen knife found in Mr Sollecito's flat that is presumed to be the murder weapon had Ms Kercher's DNA on it, it could not be proved that the DNA came from her blood.

Giuliano Mignini, the chief investigator, has re-interviewed British friends of Ms Kercher who, like her, were on an Erasmus EU exchange programme in Italy and who have returned since the crime to complete their studies. Reports said that they had confirmed their earlier testimony, in which they said that Ms Knox appeared "proud" to have discovered Ms Kercher's body and had given details of the crime scene that only someone who had either witnessed the crime or committed it could possibly have known.

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