Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Judge Micheli Denies RS & AK House Arrest, Reason “Absolute Disregard” For MK’s Life EDIT

Posted by Peter Quennell

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/30/italy

Tom Kington In The Guardian

The suspected killers of Meredith Kercher were refused transfer from jail to house arrest last night while awaiting trial for her murder, because of the danger that they might flee and kill again.

After 12 hours’ deliberation in Perugia, the judge, Paolo Micheli, said there was a “concrete possibility” that Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito would run off if freed from prison.

In a written ruling to lawyers, he said he believed the murder of the British student was not premeditated, but the likely “absolute disregard” shown by Knox and Sollecito for the victim’s life meant they would be capable of murdering again.

On Tuesday, Micheli sentenced Rudy Guede, 21, to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting and killing Kercher. She was found semi-naked with her throat cut in Perugia last November. Guede had requested a fast-track trial, and plans to appeal against his sentence.

In a parallel pre-trial hearing Micheli ordered Knox, Kercher’s 21-year-old American housemate, and Italian IT graduate Sollecito, 24, to stand trial in December. Turning down their request for house arrest yesterday, Micheli agreed with prosecutors that more than one person took part in the sexual assault and murder, dismissing claims that the 47 bruises and knife wounds on Kercher’s body could have been made by a single attacker.

He upheld the testimony of a neighbour who heard more than one person fleeing Kercher’s house, adding that while footprints there might not definitely belong to Knox and Sollecito, they did indicate more than one attacker. He stood by forensic evidence indicating Kercher’s and Knox’s DNA on a knife found at Sollecito’s house which investigators suspect is the murder weapon, and ruled Sollecito’s DNA on Kercher’s bra strap as reliable evidence.

He dismissed as “fantasy”, the claim that Knox, Sollecito and Guede planned to involve Kercher in an orgy inspired by “Halloween parties” instead describing the fatal encounter as unplanned.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/29/08 at 10:48 PM in

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