Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British university student, was found dead on 2 November 2007 with her throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the Umbrian town of Perugia.

The flat in Perugia where Meredith Kercher lived

Miss Kercher was studying at Perugia university and shared a flat in the town with Amanda Knox. It was in this property that Miss Kercher's bloodied body was discovered, stabbed in the throat.

Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, fell under suspicion for Miss Kercher's murder. Knox first told police she had been in the kitchen when the murder happened, but in her trial testified she had spent the night at Sollecito's flat.

Knox initially implicated her part-time employer at the time of the murder, bar owner Patrick Lumumba. Police held him for two weeks before releasing him without charge and he is now suing Knox for defamation.

Rudy Guede was jailed for 30 years for Miss Kercher's murder, having been tried separately - but he maintains his innocence and has launched an appeal.

Prosecutors at the trial in Perugia asked for life imprisonment for Knox and Sollecito. They said the pair and Guede had killed the British student during a drug-induced sexual assault.

Lead prosecutor Giuliano Mignini told the court Knox had been a "compressed spring" unleashed on the night of the murder. He said Knox had lashed out at Miss Kercher for complaining about her promiscuous behaviour.

One of Knox's defence lawyers, Luciano Ghirga, fought back tears as he attacked the case brought against her during his summing-up speech.

Sollecito continued to maintain his innocence during the trial. His website at the time of his arrest showed him holding a meat cleaver, and said he was "very honest... peaceable, sweet, but sometimes I am totally crazy".

Giulia Bongiorno, lead lawyer in Sollecito"s defence team, is seen facing the media. Sollecito's defence team said the engineering student was "the second victim in this affair".