Saturday, June 06, 2009

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.”

 

Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/06/09 at 03:55 PM in The officially involved,  Victims family,  Trials 2008 & 2009

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Comments

“We will try to capture the sense of some of these and report on this later.”

Please read: possibly late today but more likely Sunday or Monday, as there are really a lot of Italian reports to chew through - between them they captured almost every word.

If anyone would like to join our team of translators, we sure would like to hear from you.

One of the very touching new facts about Meredith to come out is that she was a real chocolate lover, and and as Perugia is one of the great chocolate centers of Europe, that played a big role in her choosing to be there.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/06/09 at 05:59 PM | #
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