Category: Trials 2008 & 2009
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
US Overreaction: Meredith’s Mother Regards Cantwell’s Grandstanding As Ill-Informed
Posted by Peter Quennell
This was just reported by Tom Wells in tomorrow’s The Sun
The mum of murdered Meredith Kercher yesterday blasted killer Amanda Knox’s supporters for enlisting Hillary Clinton in her appeal battle….
Ms Cantwell suggested the 22-year-old did not get a fair trial and expressed worries over possible “anti-American” bias in the Italian court. Mrs Clinton, wife of former US President Bill, has now vowed to meet with “anyone who has a concern”.
But Meredith’s mum Arline yesterday insisted Knox’s hearing WAS fair - and said she did not sense any anti-American feeling in the Perugia court.
Mrs Kercher, 64, said at her family’s home in Coulsdon, Surrey: “We are still getting over the sentencing. The whole thing has gone in a blur.
“Having them say they are looking to lodge an appeal was tough enough - and now this. I just do not know where they are going by getting people in high places involved.
“I was in no way aware of anti-American feeling. It was just a normal court. Everything seemed to be done fairly. It seems a bit desperate, but the Italian justice system should be the ones to answer whether it was fair or not.
“We were not exactly given special treatment. I can’t see there was this anti-American thing.”...
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Monday, December 07, 2009
Meredith’s Mother Says In An Interview That The Real Life Sentence Here Is Theirs
Posted by Peter Quennell
The question seems to be spreading now of whether Knox’s and Sollecito’s sentences were simply too light.
Two of the jurors have spoken out about their teary sympathy for Amanda Knox. No similar judge or jury sentiments were offered about the real victim here, the one with the first name of Meredith.
Now a UK Press Association report has gone viral on a Daily Mirror interview with the family. This below is the actual Daily Mirror interview kindly emailed to us from London (it is not online) and not the abbreviated Press Association report.
It tells of the crushing sadness of Meredith’s mother Arline - and the life sentence the perpetrators handed to her.
EXCLUSIVE: MURDERED MEREDITH’S FAMILY SPEAK FOR THE FIRST TIME
ON most days Arline Kercher stops at the door to her daughter’s bedroom, waits for a second then slowly looks in.
Everything is neat and tidy with nothing out of place - just how Meredith left it.
Arline’s eyes well up with tears as she scans the room full of her daughter’s clothes, shoes and CDs.
More than two years after the 21-year-old - affectionately known as Mez - was brutally murdered in Perugia, central Italy, it is painfully clear how closely her memory is cherished by her family.
Arline, 64, says: “It’s still Mez’s room and has barely been touched. It’s not a shrine to Meredith but it is a constant reminder of her.
“When I’m walking past with a pile of washing in my hand I get a feeling of sadness. It’s hard not to. It’s almost as though she’s just gone out and will be back in a while. But she won’t.”
Meredith remains such an integral part of their lives that they refuse to even consider ever leaving the family home in Coulsdon, Surrey.
“That’s my way of handling it,” Arline insists. “If we moved, she wouldn’t know where I am. It’s silly really.” She, husband John and their three children Lyle, John and Stephanie agreed to speak as a family for the first time since those dreadful events of November 2007.
Amanda Knox 22, was given a 26-year sentence last Friday and exlover Raffaele Sollecito, 25, received 25 years, even though prosecutors wanted full life terms.
A third man, Rudy Guede, is already serving 30 years for the murder.
Speaking in Perugia after the verdicts, the Kerchers’ overwhelming emotion remains the pain of losing Meredith - and a numb relief that her killers are finally behind bars. Arline says the family have been “living a nightmare” for two years and adds poignantly: “We’re the ones who have been given a life sentence.
“We have to live with what’s happened for the rest of our lives. People say time heals - but it doesn’t.” Lyle, 30, says: “The feeling isn’t of celebration. A verdict has been delivered that we’ve been working towards and that’s it. For me every significant stage of the process is a step towards relief, or closure as people call it.
“But until the appeal is over there’s still that black cloud hanging over everything.” Despite his sister’s horrific murder - in which she was sexually assaulted and her throat slashed - this dignified family sees no sense in venting anger at the killers.
Lyle explains: “It won’t bring her back. I was shocked when the verdict came in. You don’t know what to feel. Whether the anger will come later or in waves, I don’t know. What we have noticed is that others in the family have shouldered the anger for us.”
Stephanie, 26, adds: “People always ask us about Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, but it’s not our place to judge them. That’s what the judges and jury were there for.
“We can only go on the evidence we heard, what we’ve been told about their behaviour and what they did.”
Her brother John, 29, adds: “The thing to point out is there’s no winners in all this.”
Instead, the family prefers to remember the warmth and joy Meredith brought to their lives - and the lives of all those who knew her.
Stephanie says: “Everyone always remembers me and Mez giggling in the corner because we had so many private jokes.
“Mez liked dancing. She would come downstairs in the morning and start dancing in front of everyone and it made us all laugh.
“She was so much fun and had a wicked sense of humour.”
The Leeds University student was spending a year studying in Italy. And in her daily phone calls to Arline she would often chat for hours, telling her mumhow much she was enjoying her new life. Arline says: “She was really excited and looking forward to improving her Italian.
“We would talk every day. She would tell me about all these funny, amusing stories about university.
“She was such a vibrant girl, such a carefree person. She was really enjoying herself and had made quite a few friends, especially among the English girls.”
And it is Meredith’s popularity that makes her loss especially hard for 66-year-old dad John to bear.
He says plaintively: “You keep asking yourself, ‘Why?’ So many people loved Meredith. Why would anyone do that? It was so extreme. Everyone loved Meredith and even strangers say such nice things about her: ‘What such a lovely smile she had… she must have been a beautiful person’.
“That’s what affects me. That’s what makes me cry, not reading the details of her death.” The trial judge awarded the family £4million compensation. But they say it is merely symbolic and believe they are unlikely to see a penny.
If they do receive any money they plan to set up a charitable foundation in Meredith’s name.
Meanwhile, they will cherish her for ever in their hearts - and plan a quiet celebration of her life every year on her birthday, December 28, Lyle says: “We will definitely raise a glass to Mez every year.”
Arline adds with a sad sigh: “We will carry Meredith around with us all the time. She’s still so much a part of our lives. We will never forget her. Never.”
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The Rulings: Meredith’s Family Talks Of Meredith And The Rightness Of The Verdict
Posted by Peter Quennell
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Sunday, December 06, 2009
The Amazing Person That Was Meredith Kercher #3: The UK People Interviews Ex-Boyfriend In Australia
Posted by Peter Quennell
We knew of David Cronin because he took the photo of Meredith for her former Facebook space.
David Collins and Grant Hodgson have en exclusive interview with him. He is now a player with a soccer team at Musgrave on the Queensland Gold Coast south of Brisbane.
The shattered ex-boyfriend of murdered Meredith Kercher said last night he would be “forever haunted” by the horrendous violence of her death.
Footballer Patrick Cronin, 24, spoke out for the first time about the Perugia trial and the loving relationship he had with the girl he called “Mez”.
Patrick insisted Meredith was “no prude” but that she would never have willingly taken part in the kinky sex games Knox and Sollecito tried to lure her into.
Speaking from Australia, where he now lives, he said: “She was a kind, loving person who was friendly to everyone she met. She did not deserve to die like that and Knox is damned for what she did.
“I can never stop thinking of the terror she must have felt in that final hour. It is something that will forever haunt me.”
In an exclusive interview with The People, Patrick said he and Meredith had enjoyed a “loving, special” relationship. He said: “Questions have been raised about her sex life since she was killed and it’s wrong. She wasn’t into playing any sexual games, threesomes or anything kinky.
“Once, I texted her messages that started to become very suggestive and steamy and she pulled me up saying, ‘Whoa, let’s calm this down’. I ask myself how these killers could have done this.”
Patrick was working as a croupier and living in Hendon, North London, when he first met Meredith, then a Leeds University student, in 2005.
He fell for her at first sight in a nightclub in Kingston, south-west London and “sparks flew” as they chatted. They went on to share a string of dates and she excitedly told him she wanted to go and study in Italy.
Eventually their romance ended but they kept in touch on Facebook, even after Patrick moved Down Under with his parents.
Now playing with the Musgrave Mustangs soccer club on Queensland’s Gold Coast, he heard of Meredith’s death while doing a course on sports science.
He said: “I came out of an exam and my brother called to say it was all over the news. I went into shock.
“I had never before experienced anyone close to me dying, let alone being horrifically killed.”
Patrick said he had re-read messages he received from Meredith since the end of the trial. He added: “I will never delete them.
“I just hope the outcome of the court case brings some comfort to her family.”
The Amazing Person That Was Meredith Kercher #2: The Observer Also Wants Attention To Be On Her
Posted by Peter Quennell
Barbar Ellen calls for an overdue refocus.
Now that American Amanda “Foxy Knoxy” Knox has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to 26 years, will we finally drag our attention over to Meredith Kercher?
Meredith, the British Leeds university student, studying in Perugia [was] the victim, and therefore surely the central figure in this distressing story, though you would never have known it, gazing these past months at the gory theatrics of The Foxy Knoxy Show.
Foxy, back then, still innocent until proven guilty ““ depicted disturbingly posing with a gun, but also adopting “sex kitten” poses, like thousands of other young girls showing off on internet sites. Whose former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was also found guilty, receiving 25 years, yet, who, just like Rudy Guede (jailed for 30 years for Kercher’s murder in January), seems to have faded in public perception to the point of becoming a footnote.
All of which leads to the question: if there were three known assailants, and Kercher was the only victim, how come “Foxy Knoxy” is still getting all the attention?
The last few days of the trial were extremely strange, with both Knox and her lawyer suddenly becoming tearful, not to mention Knox’s 11th-hour flowery oratory about not wanting to be given the “mask of the assassin”, making her sound like some ham mangling Shakespeare at the Old Vic.
However, for some of us, the entire trial was bizarre, overshadowed as it was by the brazen “marketing” of Knox, the selling of her to the masses as “sexy-evil”. But it is too easy just to blame the media. There seems to be a market out there, a hunger, for this kind of thing. A predilection, as someone said to me, for favouring Bonnie over Clyde.
Even now, debates rage over Knox’s psyche (“all-American girl or she-devil?”), suggesting that, for some, there has to be duality, sexuality, a sense of mysticism attached to female homicide. That essentially society finds it impossible to conceive of a bog-standard no-frills female killer, in the same way we accept the equally guilty Sollecito and Guede.
Some may argue that there is nothing sinister going on here ““ that there is always more focus on the murderers than the victims. Well, not always. There wasn’t “more focus” on those who murdered Scarlett Keeling in Goa in 2008 ““ then all the emphasis (the scorn, the opprobrium) was directed at the lifestyle of this British girl, and that of her hippy-living mother.
Getting back to Knox, some may shrug and say, so the trial was sensationalised, somewhat over-focused on the female protagonist ““ does this really matter, seeing as she was guilty anyway? I would say, yes. Knox’s parents have already said their daughter will appeal ““ who’s to say that Knox won’t place emphasis on her “trial by media”?
Away from the legal arena, there are pressing ethical issues. The fact, for example, that even though Knox has now been found guilty, the victim, Meredith, is still barely meriting a mention. Indeed, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves ““ is this what happens when we unthinkingly turn the likes of Foxy Knoxy into cartoons of “sexy evil” ““ if are we robbing their victims of their humanity, too? Are we ensuring that innocents such as Meredith somehow get lost in the big noisy over-sensationalised shuffle?
Certainly it seems to say something that this trial has been all about Knox, just one of three found guilty of the murder. It is as if, just as Kercher desperately struggled for life, but was overpowered by her assailants, her memory is now being overwhelmed by the relentless “Foxy Knoxy” spin.
Perhaps it is time to banish the salacious lip-smacking over Foxy Knoxy to the satellite “true crime” channels where it belongs. It was Meredith who died ““ and Meredith who should now have the dignity of our thoughts.
The great soap battleaxe won’t die with Blanche
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Our Emails Are Suggesting Such A Wave Of Love And Sympathy For This Very Dignified Family
Posted by Peter Quennell
[click for larger image]
Many like this which arrived this morning from Dublin in Ireland.
I just want to send all the Kercher Family my very best wishes and support at the end of what must have been a horrendous two years ending with a long and gruelling trial. I have nothing but admiration for you as a family who are dealing with such heartbreak and have been so dignified all through and after the court case.
Justice has been done and that is of primary importance in this situation and the Italian Courts have ensured that. I hope you will be able now to start living your lives again as I am sure this was totally impossible over the last 2 years after such a vicious crime against your beautiful sister and daughter. It is bad enough having a crime like this done on home turf but to happen when the person is in another country is even more horrendous.
I want to extend you my very best wishes to you and hopefully it will assist you in living again as I am sure beautiful Meredith will never be forgotten by you but now you can start the grieving process which you as a family were robbed of because of this evil horrific crime. I just want to send you by very best wishes and support at this time as you have no choice but to continue on without you beloved sister and daughter.
Apparently some of the the reporters at this family press conference this morning were also fighting back a few tears.
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As The Nightmare Starts To Wind Down For Meredith’s Family, Huge Relief - And Still, Some Tears
Posted by Peter Quennell
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Saturday, November 21, 2009
WHY Did She Have To Go Like That? Our Saddest Day In Two Years
Posted by Our Main Posters
We praise the fire and anger that Giuliano Mignini showed in court on Meredith’s behalf.
This much maligned but really very caring and compassionate man really went to town today, for someone he clearly sees as a quite extraordinary girl.
Like all of us, her never met her. But like all of us, he loves what she stood for.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Trial: Sky News Italy’s Video Report On Saturday’s News In Italian
Posted by Peter Quennell
Mr Maresca remarks here that Meredith’s father had commented to him on how strong she was.
She had of course trained quite extensively in judo. Yet another blow to the notion that less than three committed this brutal crime.
It appears that the crowds in the piazza have lessened and that the photographers are trying to give the Kerchers plenty of space.
And that the defendants are arriving at court by way of the front entrance, and not by way of the tunnel underneath the complex.
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Trial: Meredith’s Family Recounts The Terrible Pain Of Her Loss
Posted by Peter Quennell
[click for larger image]
Italy has an intense sympathy for Meredith and her family, and already today many DOZENS of reports have appeared in Italian.
The combined detail vastly exceeds what is appearing in English. We will try to capture the sense of some of these and report on this later.
Nick Pisa on Sky News has the most detailed report so far in English:
The mother of British student Meredith Kercher fought back tears in court as she described how her family would never get over the “brutality” of her daughter’s death.
Close to tears, Mrs Kercher, 63, told the court: “It was unbelievable, unreal and in many ways it still is - I am still looking for her.
“It’s not just her death, it’s the nature of it, the brutality, the violence and the great sorrow it brought for everyone - it was such a shock.
“You send your daughter away to study and she doesn’t come back. We will never, ever get over it”...
Her sister Stephanie, 25, told the court how they had last spoken two weeks before her death but exchanged texts two days before she died.
When asked if her sister would have fought for her life Stephanie added: “110% yes. She would have defended herself.
“Physically she was very strong and she would have fought to the end.”
Last to give evidence was Miss Kercher’s father John, 68, who told the court how he heard she had died.
“It was 5pm on November 2 - Meredith’s mother phoned me to say she had heard a British student had been murdered in Perugia.
Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox in court in Perugia
Sollecito and Knox were in court to hear the Kercher family’s testimony
“I tried ringing Meredith on her mobile and I must have tried 12 times but I kept getting her answer phone.
“Then at 5.30 it started ringing but there was no answer.
“I work for a number of national newspapers so I rang the foreign desk of a paper and they said they didn’t have any details.
“Two hours later when I spoke with them they said they had the name of a British student and the name was Meredith, that’s how I found out.”
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Friday, June 05, 2009
Meredith’s Father John Describes How The Family First Found Out
Posted by Peter Quennell
[courtesy Getty; click for for larger image]
Above, John and Arline Kercher and Stephanie in Perugia on 6 November 2007 lighting candles for Meredith.
And below, John describes in the Daily Mirror how the terrible news of her death first reached him in south London.
I am at the counter in a bank in Croydon when my mobile phone rings.
It is 2.15pm on November 1 and Meredith is calling from Perugia to see how I am. It’s an unusual time for her to ring. We usually speak most evenings, but rarely during the day.
But today she doesn’t have any classes at university, where she’s studying European Politics and Italian. It’s a public holiday. We chat for two minutes, I tell her I love her and that I’ll call her later. She says she is going out, so it will be the next day.
That will be the last time I ever speak to Meredith. The next day at 5pm I am at home when Meredith’s mother Arline calls to say she’s heard reports that a British girl student has been murdered in Perugia. Obviously, there is concern. But there are thousands of British students in Perugia and you try to use that as a calming influence.
I ring Meredith but get an automated message telling me her mobile is switched off.
For the next half hour I try at least a dozen times before it suddenly starts ringing.
Relief sets in as I believe she’s switched it back on. But still there is no answer. I keep trying for a further half hour.
By now my instincts have kicked in. I have to get information fast.
I call the foreign desk of the Daily Mirror, a paper I have worked with for many years as a freelance journalist.
They tell me they only have sketchy details of the incident but if I call back in an hour they might have more.
It’s an agonising wait, but when I call back I’m told Italian police found the girl’s phone and they have been in touch with people in London. Again, my hopes rise. This must mean that whoever this unfortunate girl is, the family and British police have been notified by now.
But then my worst fears are realised. Thirty minutes later the Mirror calls to tell me they have a name. There’s some initial reluctance from the woman on the phone to give me the information. But I shall never forget her words: “The name going around Italy is Meredith.”
I drop the phone. I don’t believe it and think there must be a mistake. But I know it’s probably true. I can’t cry. I’m numb with shock.
A friend drives me to Meredith’s mother and on the way, I phone the Foreign Office to see if they can confirm what I’d been told.
They say they don’t have full details and I shouldn’t necessarily jump to conclusions.
Within an hour our family - Meredith’s sister Stephanie and brothers John and Lyle - have gathered at the house.
We’re all distraught. By now, Arline has spoken to the Foreign Office who confirm the worst. At 9pm, Meredith’s photo comes on the news. The room falls silent. We all hug.
The next day we learn some of Meredith’s old school friends plan to lay flowers at her former school in Croydon.
We go to meet them, expecting half a dozen - but there are more than 70.
It’s unbelievably touching. Some have come from universities around the country.
A small service is held in the school gardens.
Nothing prepared us for having to fly to Italy to formally identify her body and we had no idea how much her death had touched the world.
At the morgue, journalists, Italian chief of police and many others are close to tears. Arline and Stephanie go in to see Meredith. But I can’t because it would have put a full stop to my memory of her.
I had last seen her a couple of weeks before, when she flew home to buy winter clothes. We met for a coffee and she showed me some boots she had bought.
I want that to be the one memory of my daughter I hold in my mind for ever.
It’s dreadful having to wait six weeks before we can lay Meredith to rest, while police investigate. The funeral stuns me.
I didn’t expect the more than 500 people who attend. Her friends have flown in from Canada, Europe and Japan.
Afterwards, hundreds of messages flood the internet. Many are from as far as Australia and Brazil, people who never knew her but are touched by her tragic passing and who loved her smile.
Even in death she seems to reach out to people. Arline has helped me with our fond memories of Meredith as a tot. How Meredith enjoyed many things from an early age.
She went to ballet and in her teens did karate, reaching her third belt.
At school she loved reading. She wrote poetry and stories.
She was always good company and her sense of humour always had us and others laughing. The sense of the ridiculous stayed with her. She had such life and vitality and made friends wherever she went. Meredith really enjoyed Halloween.
As a youngster she would make a costume from bin liners, put candles in the pumpkins with faces, tie them to sticks and then we would visit neighbours.
It is ironic and tragic that she would die so terribly only one day after Halloween.
As Arline puts it, Meredith leaves a void that can never be filled. But wonderful memories of her live on in our hearts. All of us who knew her know what we lost.
Meredith is not only a terrible loss to her family and friends, she is also a huge loss to the world.
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Meredith’s Family Is Welcomed By Lawyer Maresca To The Court
Posted by Peter Quennell
[click for larger image; courtesy Getty Images]
Father John, mother Arline, and sister Stephanie arrive for the afternoon session.
Neither of Meredith’s brothers are shown here, although we believe that one or both are also now in Perugia. They may have entered the court by way of the route for the public.
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Thursday, June 04, 2009
The Kercher Family Prepares To Testify Friday PM And Saturday
Posted by Peter Quennell
[click for larger images; shots from earlier hearings courtesy of AP]
The Italian news service AGI is reporting that the Kercher family will arrive in Perugia around mid-day on Friday.
They are expected to be on the witness stand for all of Friday afternoon and possibly for all of Saturday. This will be their second face-to-face encounter with the defendants, and possibly their first encounter with a member of Amanda Knox’s family - at Rudy Guede’s trial, Knox’s parents chose to wait at a certain distance away from the courtroom.
Prior to their testimony, on Friday morning, the prosecution team will examine one final witness - Luca Lalli - on the wounds on Meredith’s body. Then the legal team for the Kerchers, Francesco Maresca and Serena Perna, will examine their first witnesses, the medical-legal expert Gianaristide Norelli and the forensic geneticist Francesca Torricelli.
In the afternoon the team will lead each member of the Kercher family who takes the stand - most probably John, Arline, and Stephanie - through their testimony, and they can then be cross-examined by the lead judge and the defense teams for Knox and Sollecito.
Their testimony will focus on their memories of Meredith, on her decision to come and study in Perugia, on any cellphone calls received or not received by her mother, Arline Kercher, from Meredith on the night in question, and on what Meredith may have related on the relationship between Meredith and Amanda Knox.
Their testimony is awaited with great interest as they have given almost no interviews in the past year and a half, and they have never made any statements about their theory of the crime or their takes on the two defendants. In contrast to the friends of Amanda Knox, they have repeatedly expressed confidence through Mr Maresca in the Italian judges, prosecutors, police teams, and justice system as a whole.
Italy seems to be treating Meredith’s family with an outstanding display of kindness and support. This post might help to explain why.
Plus they are enormously admired for their own grace, dignity and discretion. And their obvious sense of huge loss.
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Trial: Prosecution Resumes Friday - Meredith’s Following Is Now Worldwide
Posted by Peter Quennell
[click for larger image]
We are seeing about 1200 unique visitors a day. And more visitors on the hearing dates and the trial dates.
The “visits” column in our daily statistics for the past week shows the most significant figures. Readers in nearly 100 countries. These are the top 20. This is an English-language site, of course, and Italian readership of Italian sites would be proportionally higher.
And the UK has its own excellent online reporting. There are proportionally far more media sources reporting the case than here in the United States. .
Seems a wonderful tribute to the compelling persona of Meredith herself. Meredith has attracted a real worldwide following.
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