Knox ‘pressured’ to lie about Kercher

Amanda Knox, the American accused of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in November 2007, has taken to the stand for the first time to give evidence at her trial. Asked why she falsely implicated Patrick Lumumba, the owner of a local bar, when she gave a statement to the police, Knox claimed that she did so "in confusion and under pressure".

Knox, 21, and her boyfriend of the time, 24-year-old Raffaele Sollecito, deny murdering Kercher, who was found with her throat cut in a bedroom of the house where she and Knox were living. Another man, Rudy Guede, has already been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his part in the crime.

Speaking at her trial today, Knox said that police officers had accused her of plotting a cover-up. "When I denied that, they called me a stupid liar," she said. "They told me to try to remember what I apparently, according to them, had forgotten." When asked whether the police had hit her during this interrogation, Knox replied "twice".

"They (the officers questioning me) were suggesting Patrick Lumumba so the first thing I said was 'OK, Patrick'.

"Under the amount of pressure of everyone yelling at me and having them tell me they were going to put me in prison for protecting someone who I wasn't protecting, who I couldn't remember," Knox continued.

"I couldn't understand why they were so sure that I was the one who knew everything and so in my confusion I started to imagine that maybe I was traumatised, like what they said.

"The declarations were taken against my will."

The trial began in January and could last until the end of the year. If found guilty, Knox and Sollecito face life behind bars. ·