My life is on hold says Meredith murder accused

Raffaele Sollecito has denied any involvement in the killing of the exchange student who was found with her throat slashed in the bedroom of the house in Perugia in central Italy that she shared with American Miss Knox in November 2007.

“Every tiny little day, it is constantly on my shoulder, because these trials, this kind of situation, has put my life on hold,” Mr Sollecito told ITV’s Daybreak.

“I cannot find a normal life, a job, a career or something to focus on instead of thinking about the trial, about the documents, about what will happen, about how to pay lawyers, how to pay my bills,” he said.

Italy’s highest criminal court, the Court of Cassation, ruled in March that an appeals court in Florence must re-hear the case against Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito for the murder of 21-year-old Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey.

Mr Sollecito is due to face a retrial on September 30. But Miss Knox’s lawyer revealed last month that she will not return to Italy for the new trial.

The pair were found guilty in December 2009 of murdering Miss Kercher, with Miss Knox sentenced to 26 years in prison and Mr Sollecito 25.

But, after an 11-month appeal in a Perugia court, both convictions were thrown out in October 2011.

Prosecutors claimed that Miss Kercher was the victim of a drug-fuelled sex game gone awry.

Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito have consistently protested their innocence and claim they were not even in the apartment on the night Miss Kercher died.

They were convicted following a high-profile trial but were released after an appeals court found the prosecution lacking and criticised large swathes of the case against them.

The case mounted against them by prosecutors was ripped apart by the Italian appeals court, which noted that the murder weapon was never found, DNA tests were faulty and prosecutors provided no motive for murder.

Mr Sollecito has defended himself against claims that he and Miss Knox had made money out of the tragedy. He has said he wants Italian prosecutors to read his book to find out the facts about the case.

Speaking about his romance with Miss Knox, Mr Sollecito said: “It was a teenage romance, it was a blossoming, we were eager to date each other to see each other every day. But as soon as we dated and we started to have this romance, it was shut down, it was destroyed by events and circumstances.”

Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer from the Ivory Coast, is the only person who remains behind bars over the case in Italy, where he is serving a 16-year sentence for sexually assaulting and killing the British student.

He has always admitted being present at Miss Kercher’s home on the night of the murder but denied involvement.

Mr Sollecito said he remained in contact with Miss Knox but there was no chance of their romance being rekindled.

Speaking about their time in prison, he said: “We shared letters, we kept each other positive, we gave each other strength. We were writing about daily circumstances, of the suffering.

“We are in touch,” he added.

“We are friends but nowadays my life is very different than hers because she lives with her family, with her parents, she is under United States law and rules.

“She is not forced to make decisions like going back to Italy. My situation is very different because I have to stand by Italian rules.

“We have moved on. We have different lives, different paths.

“I know that if I didn’t meet her I would have a different destiny. But it doesn’t change the fact that the mistakes weren’t made by her.”