Meredith Kercher killer released from prison in Italy to finish his sentence doing community service

A man convicted of murdering British university student Meredith Kercher has been released from prison to complete his sentence doing community service.

Rudy Guede, 33, was convicted in 2008 for the killing of 21-year-old Kercher in Perugia, Italy in November 2007.   

Guede was recently released from jail and will complete the remainder of his 16-year sentence doing community service for charities in the central Italian city of Viterbo.

Kercher’s case drew huge media attention, much of which centred on her housemate Amanda Knox, now 33. 

Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 36, were convicted of Kercher’s murder in 2009 before being acquitted, convicted again and then finally definitely cleared in 2015.

Guede has been on day release since 2017 and was working at a local library until it was shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic.  

Born in the Ivory Coast and raised in Italy from a young age, Guede was the only person to be given a final conviction in Kercher’s case, though Italy’s top appeals court stated in 2014 that he did not act alone. 

His 16-year sentence, which he has been serving at Viterbo prison, will be complete in March 2022. 

‘He will continue with his studies and will also carry on his work with Caritas (Italian charity). He will live in an apartment in central Viterbo that has been made available for him,’ Guede’s lawyer Fabrizio Ballarini said.

‘We are very satisfied with the decision which has come about because of my client’s desire and intelligence and who did not waste his time while in prison but put it to good use and studied hard.’

Guede is completing a master’s in historical sciences at Roma Tre university, Ballarini told local outlet Umbria24. 

Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was killed just two months after moving to Italy for a study abroad programme at Perugia’s prestigious university.

Her body was found partially undressed on the floor of her bedroom after her flatmate Knox reportedly noticed blood and a broken window in the flat and became concerned. 

Kercher had been stabbed multiple times and sexually assaulted.  

Guede’s fingerprints were found at the scene along with a palm print in blood belonging to him. 

He admitted to having been at the apartment but has always denied killing or sexually assaulting Kercher. 

He said he had gone into a ‘state of shock’ after finding her dead after he returned from the bathroom.

Following the murder, Guede fled by train to Germany where he was arrested days later.  

He was charged with her murder and sexual assault and handed down a 30-year sentence, which was later cut to 16 years by an appeals court. 

Knox and Sollecito both spent four years in prison after their convictions. Knox was also convicted of defamation for wrongly accusing Patrick Lumumba, a bar owner, of the murder. 

Lumumba spent two weeks in jail, only being released when someone came forward with an alibi. 

Knox and Sollecito were acquitted in 2011 only to be convicted again in 2014 by a Florentine appeals court. 

The appeals court ruled that the injuries inflicted on Kercher’s body could not have been inflicted by Guede alone. 

However in 2015, Italy’s highest court overturned the decision in a final ruling, saying Knox and Sollecito’s convictions were the result of ‘stunning flaws’ in the investigation.