Amanda Knox during an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC (ABC via Getty Images)
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito outside the rented house where 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was found dead, in Perugia, Italy. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Raffaele Sollecito is congratulated in Perugia’s Court of Appeal after hearing that he won his appeal against his murder conviction on October 3, 2011 (AFP/Getty Images)
The man accused of killing a 21-year-old British student with Amanda Knox has opened up about his sex life with his former girlfriend, saying it “wasn’t boring” and involved talking about their fantasies.
Italian Raffaele Sollecito, 29, who along with Knox was freed on appeal in 2011 after being convicted of the 2007 murder, told The Sun meeting Knox was like “being hit by a thunderbolt”.
“Our relationship got very intense, very quickly,” he said.
Sollecito met Knox just five days before Meredith Kercher, 21, was found dead from a slashed throat in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy. Prosecutors painted the murder as an orgy gone wrong.
“I didn’t have much experience of sex. She had a bit more than me. We were sleeping together and our sex life wasn’t boring,” Sollecito said of Knox.
“We talked about fantasies and asked each other what we liked and so on but it was totally normal.”
Knox, now 25, and Sollecito were initially convicted of the crime and sentenced to long prison terms. A Perugia appeals court acquitted them in 2011, criticizing virtually the entire case mounted by prosecutors. The appellate court noted that the murder weapon was never found, said that DNA tests were faulty and that prosecutors provided no murder motive.
But in March, the Court of Cassation overturned the acquittal and now Knox and Sollecito must face trial again.
Both Knox and Sollecito denied any involvement, saying they weren’t in the apartment at the time.
A young man from Ivory Coast, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the slaying in a separate proceeding and is serving a 16-year sentence.
“It feels like I am in a horror movie where they keep making sequels,” Sollecito said.
“The prosecution has a theory without real evidence or facts. It is extremely painful. It seems so personal, like they are determined to draw me back into this nightmare.
“I survived the flames of hell once and now they are pulling me back into them. It feels like a war. I was 23 and had just met a great girl.
“Why would I suddenly violently murder someone I hardly knew with someone I had only met five days earlier? It makes no sense.”
Speaking of his relationship with Knox, Sollecito said: “Because of what happened we never got the chance to see what would happen in our relationship. Who knows we might even still be together now.”
– with Associated Press