Foxy Knoxy's appeal hopes boosted as key witness changes his story
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 5:19 PM on 26th March 2011
The appeal hopes of Amanda Knox were boosted today when a key prosecution witness gave conflicting evidence relating to the killing of British student Meredith Kercher.
The convicted killer dubbed 'Foxy Knoxy' is battling to get her conviction for the sexual assault and murder of her housemate Miss Kercher overturned.
In a hearing in Perugia this morning, witness Antonio Curatolo - a self-confessed drug addict now in prison for an unrelated conviction - gave contradictory accounts about whether he saw her near the crime scene in the Italian hilltop town.
Appeal: Amanda Knox is flanked by police as she arrives in Perugia's courthouse for the latest leg of her murder conviction appeal
Today he repeated his claim that he had seen the lovers 'talking excitedly' in the square and said he thought it was Halloween night - which would be the night before the November 1, 2007 murder.
Raffaele Sollecito smiles in court during today's session in the latest hearing of his appeal against his murder conviction
In fact police went to the crime scene on November 2, when the University of Leeds student's semi-naked body was found in a pool of blood on her bedroom floor, under a duvet.
Curatolo, 54, smiled as he told the court today: 'Police and Carabinieri were coming and going, and I also saw the 'extraterrestrials' - that would be the men in white overalls.'
His account contradicts Knox and Sollecito's defence that they were at the latter's house when Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was killed.
But his confusion over the dates was said to have cast doubt on his credibility.
Defence lawyers branded him unreliable, though the prosecution maintained that, despite some lack of precision, the witness was lucid and clear in what he remembered.
However he also confessed to a long-lasting drug habit, saying: 'I have always done drugs... heroin, which is not a hallucinogen.'
Sollecito's lawyer Giulia Bongiorno said today's hearing 'marked an important step forward for the defence's arguments.'
And Knox's stepfather Chris Mellas, who has moved to Italy to be close to her, said 'it couldn't go any better today'.
Miss Kercher's throat was slit after what prosecutors described as a sex game taken to the extreme.
Crime scene: The Perugia home which Meredith shared with Knox as part of her European Studies degree
Both have continued to protest their innocence from behind bars and are appealing against the verdicts.
A third young person, Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer from the Ivory Coast, was jailed for 30 years for the murder following a fast-track trial in October 2008. His sentence was cut to 16 years on appeal.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370207/Amanda-Knox-appeal-Foxy-Knoxys-hopes-boosting-key-witness-changes-story.html#ixzz1HjEBxOZs
