The pathologist who conducted the post-mortem examination on Meredith Kercher, the British student murdered in Perugia in November, has cast doubt on the prosecution allegation that she was subjected to “sexual violence” before being killed. Luca Lalli says that there is no “physical evidence” of such an attack.

In a report presented this morning to Giuliano Mignini, the chief investigating magistrate, Dr Lalli said that Ms Kercher had had an “incomplete sexual encounter” before her death. He was unable to ascertain “with certainty” whether this was on the evening of the murder or the day before.

In an interview with La Stampa he confirmed that Ms Kercher had bled to death after her throat was cut, but denied reports that he had asserted that she died a “slow and agonising death” and could have been saved if her attackers had called the emergency services.

He said that the crime had been committed “two or three hours after her last meal”. This would place it at between 9pm and 10pm on the evening of November 1, since Ms Kercher's British female friends in Perugia have stated that they ate a supper of pizza and ice cream at about 7pm.

Dr Lalli said it was up to Claudia Matteini, the investigating judge, to decide whether the sexual act in which Ms Kercher had engaged was forced on her or had been consensual. There was no physical or biological evidence such as bruising tha could lead him to assert that she had been “violated”.

The three suspects in the case — Amanda Knox, Ms Kercher's American flatmate; Raffaele Sollecito, Ms Knox's Italian former boyfriend; and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast immigrant with joint Italian nationality — have all denied the investigators' contention that they took part in a drugs-fuelled sexual attack on Ms Kercher which ended in her death when she resisted.

Mr Guede — the only one of the three to admit that he was at the whitewashed hillside cottage that Ms Kercher shared with Ms Knox on the evening of the crime — has admitted he had sex with the victim, but insists it was consensual. He has told police the sexual encounter was “partial” because they had stopped when they realised that neither of them had a condom.

Mr Guede maintains that Ms Kercher was killed by an “unknown assailant” with whom he grappled but whose face he did not see clearly.

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