Kercher suspect 'did cartwheels' after arrest

| Sat, 02/28/2009 - 03:04

An American woman on trial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher did cartwheels at the police station following her arrest, a Perugia court heard Friday.

Giving evidence at the trial of Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, the head of Perugia's flying squad at the time Domenico Giacinto Profazio said he was told the couple had been ''sitting on each other's knees'' at the police station on November 5 2007.

''I was also told that Amanda did cartwheels and the splits in one of the rooms at the station, and that she started crying at the end of the interrogation''.

The court also heard that the cell phones of Knox and Sollecito were both turned off between 20.00 and 20.30 on November 1, the night of the murder, and were not turned on again until the next day.

Sollecito's phone was turned on at around 6.00 the next morning, but investigators were unable to say when Knox's phone became active again.

Both defendants claim they were at Sollecito's house on the night of the murder.

Kercher, 21, was found semi-naked and with her throat slit in the house she shared in Perugia with Seattle-born Knox and two Italian women.

A third defendant, Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede, 21, was sentenced to 30 years for sexually assaulting and murdering the British exchange student at a separate trial in October.

The prosecution claims Kercher was killed when all three defendants tried to force her to participate in ''a perverse group sex game''.

Prosecutors say Knox was responsible for cutting Kercher's throat while Sollecito and Guede held her down.

Knox, 21, and Sollecito, 24, are also charged with the theft of 300 euros, two credit cards and two mobile phones belonging to Kercher as well as simulating a crime to make it look like an intruder had broken into the house.

The defendants deny the charges against them.

Their legal teams are set to argue that Guede broke into the house and carried out the attack single-handedly while Knox and Sollecito spent the night at Sollecito's house.

The trial of Knox and Sollecito, which began last month, is being held in stages and is expected to last until the summer.

Police involved in the murder investigatino are due to give evidence over the next two days.

Both Knox and Sollecito were in court Friday, as was Knox's father Curt.

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