The family of murdered British student Meredith Kercher have demanded €25 million compensation from one of her alleged killers.

Prosecution lawyers made the request on Monday during a closed-door trial for Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast-born drifter who police say was one of three youngsters involved in the murder of 21 year old Kercher in Perugia in 2007.

Kercher was discovered stabbed to death in her rented house in the Umbrian town of Perugia in November last year.

The court heard how Kercher was killed in a brutal drugs-crazed sex attack. Under Italian law victims’ families can make compensation claims ahead of any conviction.

Italian police have charged three people with the murder. Prosecutors have described how Kercher was coerced into a “perverse sexual game” by her 21 year old American flatmate Amanda Knox.

Prosecutors say that Kercher was sexually assaulted and then stabbed in the throat by her 21 year old American flatmate Amanda Knox. It is alleged that Guede and Knox’s boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, both 24, held Kercher down during the attack.

All three of the accused have denied the charges.

Guede requested the fast-track trial, which separates him from the other two accused, amid fears that his co-accused planned to blame him for the murder.

The prosecution has asked for a life prison sentence for all three.

Kercher and Knox were flatmates in a house in the town where young people come from all over the world to learn Italian.

Two other women who lived with them were not present on the weekend that Meredith was killed and left in a pool of blood.

One of them was quoted in the Rome daily Il Messaggero as saying in court that Meredith had become increasingly irritated with Knox's life style which she said was marked by drug use and promiscuity.

Beginning tomorrow, defence attorneys are expected to contest the forensic evidence and assert that objects where DNA were found had been manipulated or mishandled by police investigators.

A knife found in Sollecito's apartment had DNA traces from both Knox and Kercher, while traces belonging to Sollecito were found on Kercher's bra. Knox and Sollecito say they spent the night of the murder alone in his apartment smoking marijuana.

After reaching a verdict for Guede, who has admitted being in the house but says he was in the bathroom when Kercher was killed, Judge Paolo Micheli will decide whether to formally indict Knox and Sollecito.

It is widely expected that they will stand trial.

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