Kercher’s father tells of agonising visit to mortuary as he looks to tell her story

In a new book about the killing, John Kercher admits he was unable to look at his daughter for a final time for fear that he would lose his “laughing and happy” final memory of her.

Mr Kercher’s account of comes six months after American Amanda Knox walked free from prison in Italy, acquitted of the crime.

Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was on a study exchange trip when she was found dead on November 2, 2007 in her bedroom at the house in the Umbrian city of Perugia she shared with Knox.

Knox, who was also studying in the town, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were jailed for the murder but were acquitted on appeal last October.

Ivory Coast-born drifter Rudy Guede was also jailed for the murder after being prosecuted in a separate trial and remains in prison.

Mr Kercher said: “With Knox and Sollecito now free, we find that we are still waiting for justice for our daughter and sister, and have to face up to the possibility that we might never have a satisfactory picture of what unfolded in Perugia on that terrible November night.”

Mr Kercher said he wrote the book, entitled Meredith: Our Daughter’s Murder And The Heartbreaking Quest For The Truth, because it seemed that his daughter was “all but forgotten” with the spotlight focused relentlessly on Knox and her high-profile court battle.

Mr Kercher, who suffered a stroke in 2009, which could have been caused by the stress of his daughter’s death, said: “In writing this book, I hope to go some way towards redressing the balance, for Meredith was a beautiful, intelligent and caring girl whom everyone loved, and her story deserves to be told.”

The 304-page book will be released on April 26. It gives the 21-year-old’s father the chance to tell his story at least six months before Knox, from Seattle, tells hers.

Publisher HarperCollins acquired the rights to Knox’s memoir for a reported £2.5 million and have tentatively scheduled its publication for 2013.