Amanda Knox to fly home after being cleared of Kercher murder

This article is more than 7 years old
Meredith Kercher's father says decision is 'ludicrous'
Knox family due to board scheduled flight home to Seattle
David Cameron says people should remember Kerchers' pain

Amanda Knox is due to fly back to the US after she and her former boyfriend were cleared on appeal of the murder of the British student Meredith Kercher four years ago.

Knox, now 24, sobbed as the panel of judges delivered their verdict in a Perugia courtroom, ruling that she and Raffaele Sollecito should have their convictions overturned and ending a lengthy legal saga throughout which both maintained their innocence.

Prosecutors had claimed the pair and Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast-born drifter, pressured Kercher into participating in a drug-fuelled sex game that culminated in murder. Guede, who was jailed for 16 years, is now the only person convicted over the killing.

Following her formal release from the Perugia prison where she has lived the past four years, Knox spent the night with her family in Rome. Later on Tuesday, she will board a scheduled flight back to her home city of Seattle.

Awaiting her is an uncertain future, expected to begin with negotiations over a lucrative TV interview and memoir about her experiences. And while US opinion has been significantly more supportive of the former language student than in Italy, where Knox has been variously portrayed by prosecutors and the media as a sex-obsessed temptress, a witch and a "she-devil", resuming any semblance of normal life will be difficult.

A friend and supporter of Knox, Corrado Maria Daclon, who heads a foundation that has championed her cause, said the Knox wanted to "reconnect with her family, take possession of her life".

The decision dismayed the family of Kercher, the 21-year-old student from Coulsdon, south London, found partly clothed with her throat cut, at the apartment she shared with Knox and others on 1 November 2007.

Kercher's parents and siblings had previously promised to respect the appeal court's ruling, but her father, John, who did not attend the hearing, said afterwards that it was "ludicrous".

"How can they ignore all the other evidence? I thought the judge might play it safe and uphold the conviction but reduce the sentence. But this result is crazy," he told the Daily Mirror.

"There were 47 wounds on Meredith and two knives used. One person couldn't possibly have done that. What happens now? Does that mean the police need to look for more killers? It makes a mockery of the original trial. We are all shocked, we could understand them reducing the sentence but completely freeing them, wow."

Amid the media frenzy over Knox and Sollecito, people should consider the feelings of the Kerchers, David Cameron told ITV1's Daybreak programme. "I haven't followed every part of this case but what I would say is that we should be thinking of the family of Meredith Kercher because those parents … they had an explanation of what happened to their wonderful daughter and that explanation is not there any more," he said.

"Of course, there is still someone there in prison for her murder but I think everyone today should be thinking about them and how they feel."

After the moment of acquittal on Monday night, as a sobbing Knox was escorted from the courtroom, a crowd outside the building began whistling before a chant began of "vergogna, vergogna" – "disgrace, disgrace".

The judges confirmed Knox's conviction for slandering her former employer, Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, whom she initially accused of the murder, and increased her sentence from one to three years. But since she has already spent four years in jail, Knox was able to walk free.

The tension in court as the verdict was delivered exploded into gasps when the presiding judge, Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, began by declaring that the American student's appeal had been rejected, before adding that the rejection only applied to the slander charge.

The two professional and six lay judges reached their decision after 11 hours of deliberation having earlier heard final pleas from the two appellants. Moments after the verdict was announced, Knox's sister Deanna Knox gave a brief statement outside court. "We're thankful that Amanda's nightmare is over," she said. "She has suffered for four years for a crime that she did not commit."

Deanna paid tribute to her sister's legal team. "Not only did they defend her brilliantly, but they also loved her. We are thankful for all the support we have received from all over the world – people who took the time to research the case and could see that Amanda and Raffaele were innocent. And last, we are thankful to the court for having the courage to look for the truth and to overturn this conviction."

Francesco Sollecito, Raffaele Sollecito's father, said he had "allowed himself some tears". Of Meredith Kercher, he said: "We will remember her with affection. I would have liked to talk to her relatives as well, as they have lost a daughter in a very cruel way. "But tonight, they [the court] have given me back my son."

Earlier, in her final statement to the court, Knox, her voice quavering and never far from breaking down, said: "I want to go home, to my life. I don't want to be deprived of my life, my future for something I have not done."

Though the judges did not immediately disclose their reasoning, they are likely to have been heavily influenced by the report of experts appointed by the court to review the forensic evidence. In June, the independent experts decided that two pillars of the prosecution case were not reliably founded.

One was a trace of Sollecito's DNA on Meredith Kercher's bra clasp, which was found more than six weeks after the discovery of her body, and which the young Italian's lawyer implied last week might have been planted. The experts said the DNA could have got there by contamination. The second key item of evidence was a kitchen knife, bearing Sollecito's and Knox's DNA, that the prosecution claimed was used to slash Kercher's throat. The experts said a third sample of DNA was not necessarily that of the victim.

Within 90 days, the judges must submit their written verdict and the various parties will then have 45 days in which to take the case to Italy's highest appeals court, the court of cassation. Under Italian law, the prosecution can lodge an appeal in the same way as the defence.

But it is expected that Knox will leave immediately for the US, and if the court of cassation were to reinstate the decision of the lower court, the authorities would have to seek her extradition.

The prosecutor who oversaw the inquiry, Giuliano Mignini, hinted more than once before the outcome that he might not seek a further ruling.