I Wouldn't Wish My Pain On Anyone

A decade after walking free from jail, Amanda Knox now campaigns against wrongful convictions. But building a new life has been hard. “I exist only through the lens of Meredith’s murder in some people’s minds

- Rosie Kinchen

Amanda Knox made world headlines in 2007 when she was arrested for the murder of her British housemate, Meredith Kercher (LEFT) in the Italian village of Perugia.

It was a feeble end to a tragic tale. A few months ago – more than 13 years after the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in an Italian village made international headlines – the only person still convicted for the crime, Rudy Guede (34), was quietly released from prison.

His original sentence had been commuted from 30 years to 16, and now he was free after 13. But it was the response to his release in December that was so surprising. Very little of it focused on Guede at all. “Man who killed Amanda Knox’s roommate freed on community service,” read a headline in the New York Post. Amanda, who has twice been acquitted of the murder, was clearly infuriated.

“His name is Rudy Guede. Her name is Meredith Kercher. The one name that should not be in this headline is mine,” she wrote on Twitter.

I’d been in touch with Amanda for a month or two at this point, having looked her up while doing research for a crime series I was writing for a magazine, and had become increasingly confused by how the public perceivedher. It wasn’t just that she remained the focus of any reporting on the case, but the extent to which she was still blamed for Meredith’s murder. Typical responses to her tweets were “gross” and “you should be ashamed of yourself ”.

I scrolled through the messages with growing unease. I knew a little about Amanda’s case: that the American and her Italian boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, had been convicted of the 2007 murder of Meredith, Amanda’s British housemate, in Perugia, and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in jail respectively.

Surrounded by police at a court hearing.