Witness claims Knox was not in Kercher’s flat

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were not in Meredith Kercher's flat on the night of her murder, according to new testimony from the cellmate of Rudy Guede, the Ivorian who was convicted of killing Kercher along with the American student and her boyfriend.

Sollecito’s lawyer, Luca Maori, told Associated Press that he had interviewed Guede’s cell mate as part of preparations for an appeal. Mario Alessi, a child killer, claims in the new testimony that Guede told him Kercher’s real murderer is still at large and is unknown to investigators.

According to the Daily Mail, Alessi says during the two-and-a-half-hour videotaped interview: "We were speaking and [Guede] said he had been at the house the night of the murder but that Raffaele and Amanda were not there.

"Rudy said that he was not alone with Meredith and that another man was there, someone who has not even come across the investigation's path, and he said this man was the killer.

"He said that Meredith had been asked for sex but that she had refused and he said he went to the bathroom, came out and she was dying from a stab wound."

The 'friend' then told Guede they had better finish her off "or we'll both rot in prison". He then stabbed her in the neck repeatedly and ran away, leaving Guede alone in the flat.

Later that night, the killer met Guede in a nightclub, gave him some money he had stolen from Kercher and told him to run away. It is well-established that Guede fled to Germany after the murder.  

The name of the friend has not been disclosed, but it is thought that Guede may have revealed his identity to Alessi.

Although the evidence will provide a new line of inquiry, it is unclear whether the testimony of the child murderer will hold much weight in Sollecito and Knox’s imminent appeals. It is not the first time Guede has apparently confessed that Knox and Sollecito were not at Meredith's flat on the night of the murder. He allegedly made the claim during a Skype call to a friend when he was on the run in Germany - although the detail about the 'third man' is new. Knox and Sollecito were convicted regardless.

Guede's lawyer Valter Biscotti was apparently unaware of the videotaped interview: "This is all new to me. Rudy has never mentioned any of this and I have been his lawyer for more than two years," he said. "I find it strange that he would say something like this to another prisoner and not to me." ·