Pain goes on for Meredith Kercher’s weary family

Once again all the attention is back on Amanda Knox as she was re-convicted of the killing of British student Meredith Kercher this week.

The speculation is about whether or not Knox will be extradited from her home in Seattle and sent back to an Italian jail to serve 28 years for murder.

She has already said they will have to catch her and then drag her back kicking and screaming. As usual in this tragic case, the victim and her family are all but forgotten.

Meredith was just 21 years old when she was found stabbed to death in a student flat she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.

For her family it was the start of a nightmare that will never end. They have seen Meredith’s reputation trashed and had to undergo the ordeal of the original 2009 trial when Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of Meredith’s killing and sent to jail.

Two years later, there was more heartache when Knox and Sollecito, were released after a successful appeal. This devastated Meredith’s relatives and friends.

Knox went back to the USA and appeared on countless talk shows and was also given what was believed to be a multimillion dollar book deal to publish her side of the story. This was unbearable for Meredith’s family.

I interviewed both Knox and Sollecito last year about the prospect of this new trial and the two of them could not have been more different.

Sollecito was quietly determined to go back to Italy and fight to prove his innocence once and for all, and he was indeed in court to hear that he had been sentenced to 25 years in jail. On Friday he was apprehended at the Italian border and told he cannot leave the country.

Knox spoke to me from her home in Seattle and was far more bullish. To my mind she was also putting on something of a performance.

Her answers sounded over rehearsed and her expressions of sympathy for Meredith’s family simply didn’t ring true.

She dismissed the amount of ‘blood money’ she had made by writing her book and took great pains to explain how much the trial and being in prison had adversely affected her.

She reiterated her innocence but said she would not be going over to Italy to defend herself in the retrial. As we know she stuck to that decision and has not set foot in the country, nor does she have any intention of so doing.

The decision, and her ultimate fate, will ultimately rest in the hands of US Secretary of State John Kerry, who will rule on the possibility of extradition.

In the meantime, Knox and Sollecito are set to appeal. That process will take up to a year and the whole circus could then begin all over again. This means more ordeals ahead for Meredith’s long-suffering family.

Her brother Lyle and sister Stephanie were in court this week to hear the verdict but they wearily declared that it was nothing to celebrate and that they struggled to find any comfort.

As with all victims of serious crimes they are the ones who have to serve a life sentence and their agony should never be forgotten or overshadowed by Knox just because she has a pretty face and good PR people.