Meredith Kercher's Killer Freed After 14 Years In Prison

The man who was convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been released from prison.

Rudy Guede was the only person jailed over Meredith’s sexual assault and murder, while the Leeds University student was on a year abroad programme in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.

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While he was initially sentenced to 30 years, Guede’s term was cut to 16 years in a later appeal. The past year has seen Guede serving community service.

"My initial thoughts are with Meredith Kercher's family who've been confronted by this painful affair," his lawyer, Fabrizio Ballarini, told Italian media.

While Guede’s blood-stained fingerprints were found at the scene, which secured his conviction for murder, Guede has always denied killing Meredith.

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The infamous court case, which garnered worldwide notoriety, previously saw Meredith’s American flatmate Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, also convicted, but their sentences were quashed following an appeal in 2011.

Amanda Knox has since been highly critical of the treatment she faced by the media throughout the trial, and described Guede as the “forgotten killer”.

“The one who was quietly tucked away, convicted of a lesser crime, and does not have to live with the burden of forever being associated with Meredith’s death,” she said

“I do know that many, many people have suffered a great deal because of what he did.”

Amanda has since explained that she would like to return to Italy one day to ‘face her fears’, after spending four years imprisoned in the country.

Amanda Knox was jailed for four years, before the conviction overturned.

"It's very scary and every day you need to face up to something new that is terrifying but I've been lucky and I am healing,” she said at the Death Becomes Us true crime festival in New York back in 2019.

“But you have got to face up to your fears alone if you want to heal and I know the main thing that still terrifies me most is returning to Italy.

“It's something I know I have to do and I will do it but it really does scare me... it's all still very raw there - people haven't moved on and I don't know how they would react to me.”

Topics: News

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley