Foxy Knoxy’s lover speaks
Interview ... Raffaele Sollecito in Manhattan
DAN CALLISTER
SITTING in a Manhattan restaurant, Raffaele Sollecito barely merits a glance from diners as he washes down pizza with a Coke.
Yet the smartly-dressed man is a suspect in one of the world’s most intriguing murder cases.
In 2009 Sollecito and girlfriend Amanda Knox, dubbed “Foxy Knoxy”, were found guilty of the murder of 21-year-old Brit Meredith Kercher who was studying with them in Perugia, Italy.
He was jailed for 25 years and Knox 26 but two years later they were freed on appeal. Yet last week Italy’s Supreme Court ruled they must face trial AGAIN.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Italian Sollecito, now 29, told of his dismay with the decision, his fling with Knox and his sorrow for Meredith’s family.
With Amanda Knox days after the murder ... Raffaele Sollecito
Asked if he loved Knox who he met just five days before Meredith’s death, Sollecito admits: “Meeting Amanda was like being hit by a thunderbolt. Our relationship got very intense, very quickly.
“I didn’t have much experience of sex. She had a bit more than me. We were sleeping together and our sex life wasn’t boring.
“We talked about fantasies and asked each other what we liked and so on but it was totally normal.” The pair remain close and met in New York days ago. He added: “We have been through such a huge thing together that it is natural we would remain friends and support each other.”
Meredith was murdered in the flat she shared with Knox in November 2007.
Sollecito, who no longer wears the owlish glasses he was seen in shortly after Meredith’s death, cannot understand why his trial has been reopened.
He said: “It feels like I am in a horror movie where they keep making sequels.
“The prosecution has a theory without real evidence or facts. It is extremely painful. It seems so personal, like they are determined to draw me back into this nightmare.
“I survived the flames of hell once and now they are pulling me back into them. It feels like a war. I was 23 and had just met a great girl.
“Why would I suddenly violently murder someone I hardly knew with someone I had only met five days earlier? It makes no sense.”
The Kercher family feel Meredith’s memory is in danger of being lost among the circus surrounding the court cases.
In a separate trial drifter Rudy Guede was jailed for 30 years for the murder. His sentence was later cut to 16 years.
Sollecito said quietly: “I will never forget Meredith. It was terrible what happened. But I am not responsible for her death. It makes me sad when her family say they still believe other people were involved. Rudy Guede is in prison for her murder and his DNA was all over the scene.”
And Sollecito said, despite only meeting Meredith a few times, he would one day like to visit her grave in Mitcham, Surrey.
Speaking of his relationship with Knox who he met at a classical music concert, he added: “She was great. I was really, really happy.
“Because of what happened we never got the chance to see what would happen in our relationship. Who knows we might even still be together now.”
He is convinced Italian prosecutors are persisting with their “crazy” sex-game murder theory as a vendetta against him and Knox and to save their own reputation.
Murdered ... Meredith Kercher
Sollecito barely recognised the description of him in the first trial, where his love of video games and violent Manga comics was used to “smear” him.
He said: “It was crazy. They said Amanda and I were kissing and touching and I went after Meredith because I was excited by the ‘sexual vibrations’.
“What does that even mean? I have never had a threesome or an orgy in my life.”
Asked why he changed his story and told cops Knox had left his flat at 9pm and not returned until 1am, Sollecito said: “The police were very aggressive. I asked for a lawyer but they didn’t give me one. And none of the interviews were taped, which I find bizarre. I got very confused as to what day they were referring to.”
And asked why he said to Knox “we will have wild sex tonight” the day after the murder, he said he was being “ironic” because she had just bought undies with a cartoon cow on them.
Sollecito has struggled with ordinary life since leaving jail. And he has found it hard to find lasting happiness with anyone. He said: “There was one girl I liked and she liked me too.
“But explaining I am Raffaele Sollecito and I am linked to a murder case is always difficult.
“I understand, it is not easy for people to form a relationship with someone like that.”
He has never lived in the same place for more than two months.
Sollecito hoped to use the software engineering degree he gained in prison to start a career in Switzerland but his visa was revoked.
He is in the US on a tourist visa and visiting relatives on his doctor dad Francesco’s side. His mum died of a heart attack in 2005.
The complex Italian justice system means even if Sollecito is acquitted at his next trial, the Supreme Court has to rule on that verdict and could order ANOTHER trial.
He is still in debt and has set up a Facebook site asking for donations towards the new court costs.
Yet he has “no regrets” about meeting Knox, adding: “It is not her fault. I could have done what the police wanted and told them I wasn’t with her that night.
“But I couldn’t have lived with my conscience.” He adds wistfully: “Who knows? One day something happy might happen to me.”
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