Amanda Knox co-accused says life ‘on hold’ over murder retrial

Raffaele Sollecito has denied any involvement in the killing of the Leeds University 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 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 blossoming, we were eager 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 serving a 16-year sentence for sexually assaulting and killing the British student.