Italian Prosecutor Says Amanda Knox Led Sex Assault on 'Prissy' Roommate
PERUGIA, Italy Nov. 20, 2009— -- Amanda Knox cried today as an Italian prosecutor recreated in vivid detail how Knox allegedly became infuriated at her "prissy" roommate Meredith Kercher and led a sexual assault that left Kercher bleeding to death on her bedroom floor.
Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini was the first to speak in what will be four days of summations in the lengthy case. During his presentation, Mignini described a tense relationship between Knox and Kercher, who shared a cottage in Perugia, Italy, with two Italian women.
Knox, 22, and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are charged with killing Kercher along with a third person, Rudy Guede. Guede, an Ivory Coast native, has already been convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
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Mignini said the two women had argued over rent money missing from Kercher's room. Kercher had also complained, Mignini said, of Knox's habit of bringing boys to the house late at night.
On Nov. 1, 2007, Knox showed up late at the house with her Italian boyfriend Sollecito and Guede, who had said he could get Knox drugs, the prosecutor said.
"There could have been an argument between Meredith and Amanda that then degenerated because of the rental money that had disappeared or maybe Meredith was annoyed by the mere presence of Rudy," Mignini said.
"After a heated discussion the three, under the influence of the drugs, and probably alcohol as well, decide to put into action the project they had of involving an extreme sex game," he said.
The prosecutor contended that Knox's anger weent out of control.
"Amanda has the occasion to get back at that overly serious and moralizing English girl who she felt was too tied to the closed group of her English friends, and who accused her not too subtly of not being orderly or clean, and who criticized her for being too easy with boys," Mignini said.
"Amanda nurtured her hate for Meredith, but that night that hate could explode. For Amanda the moment had come to take revenge on that prissy girl. That is what she must have thought.And in a crescendo of threats and increasing violence, Meredith's ordeal begins."
