The American accused of murdering British student Meredith Kercher took the witness stand for the first time today and told an Italian court how she smoked marijuana and had sex with her boyfriend on the night of the killing.
But Amanda Knox insisted she spent the whole night at boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito's flat and claimed the last time she saw Meredith alive was hours before she was found with her throat slit.
Prosecutors contend that Knox, an exchange student from Seattle who called herself 'Foxy Knoxy' on her MySpace page, and Sollecito killed 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia
Kercher's body was found there on November 2, 2007, and legal experts said she was killed the night before.
'On November 1, I told Raffaele that I wanted to watch a movie so we went to his place,' Knox said.
'After dinner, they went upstairs to his room. I sat on the bed, he sat at his desk, he prepared the joint and then we smoked it together,' the 21-year-old woman continued.
'First we made love, then we fell asleep.'
During her testimony, Knox alternated between English and Italian, occasionally pausing to take a breath, her voice shaky at times.
Knox said she last saw Kercher on the afternoon of November 1. They talked about what they had done the night before - a Halloween night out - and Knox said Kercher still had a bit of her vampire makeup on.
Sollecito then arrived at the house. He and Knox had something to eat while Kercher was in her room, Knox told the court.
'She left her room, said "bye" and walked out the door,' Knox said, at this point speaking Italian. 'That was the last time I saw her.'
Sollecito, 25, has said he was at his own apartment the night of November 1, working at his computer.
He said he does not remember if Knox spent the whole night with him or just part of it. The two have said they could not remember events clearly because they had taken drugs.
Knox also repeated her accusations that she was beaten by police and confused when she was questioned in the days after the killing. Police have denied any misconduct.
After the killing, Knox accused Diya 'Patrick' Lumumba, a Congolese man who owns a pub in Perugia, of being the culprit. Lumumba was jailed briefly in the case, but he is no longer a suspect and is seeking defamation damages from Knox.
Knox was called to testify both in her own defence and in a civil case brought by Lumumba.
'The declarations were taken against my will, so everything that I said was said in confusion and under pressure,' Knox said under questioning by Lumumba's lawyer.
'They called me a stupid liar; said I was trying to protect someone. I was not trying to protect anyone,' she said.
'I didn't know what to respond. They said I left Raffaele's home, which I denied, but they continued to call me "stupid liar".'
Knox smiled as she walked into the court before her testimony. She was dressed in a white shirt and white trousers and had her hair pulled into a ponytail.
Earlier Knox waved at her father Curt as she arrived into the courtroom, who was present along with his new partner Cassandra and Knox's aunt Christine Hagge.
As he walked into court this morning, Mr Knox said: 'Today we are going to see a new Amanda - she is not the dark angel that she has been described.'
He had flown to Perugia from his home in Seattle, Washington, and last night defended his daughter, saying: 'Amanda has nothing to hide. She is nervous but she is also at the same time comfortable with what is about to happen.
Kurt Knox defended his daughter before the trial: 'She has nothing to hide'
'For the first time the judge and jury will be able to hear her version of events and they will be able to see her come across as 100 per cent innocent. She will field all the questions no matter who they are from.
'She has nothing to hide.'
Knox and Sollecito have been jailed since shortly after the slaying. They are both charged with murder and sexual violence.
They could face Italy's stiffest punishment, life imprisonment, if convicted of murder. The trial began in January and a verdict is expected after a summer break.
A third suspect in the case, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, was found guilty of murder and sexual violence and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
He was given a fast-track trial at his request, and his appeal is set to start in November. He, too, denies wrongdoing.
The trial has been closed to cameras but the presiding judge, exceptionally, allowed them in to film for Knox's testimony - only to ask them to leave in a few minutes for causing too much disruption.
The cameras were then crammed in the press room, where proceedings were being shown on a screen.
Source:DailyMail.co.uk
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