EXCLUSIVE Meredith Kercher’s killer raped me: Ex-girlfriend who says she was sexually assaulted and beaten by man jailed for British student’s murder is ‘woman of courage’, her lawyer says

• It was previously revealed Guede had been charged with beating his ex 

The former girlfriend of Meredith Kercher’s killer who claims she was raped and assaulted by him has been described as ‘a woman of courage’ by her lawyer.

The 23-year-old is said to be determined that ‘truth triumphs’ after reporting her ordeal to Italian police after the end of her relationship with Rudy Guede.

MailOnline has been told that Guede, 36, who served 13 years in jail for the infamous murder and sexual assault of Miss Kercher, 21, in Italy intends to deny the new allegations.

A legal source close to him said it was believed he had ‘concrete elements to defend himself’.

The Ivory Coast drifter is expected to enter a defence when he is ‘interrogated’ by a judge in a private hearing on Monday at a court in the historic town of Viterbo, north of Rome.

The 23-year-old is said to be determined that ‘truth triumphs’ after reporting her ordeal to Italian police after the end of her relationship with Rudy Guede (pictured in 2016)

Guede, 36, was released from prison in June after serving 13 years for the murder and sexual assault of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher (pictured) in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007

Guede is working as a researcher and librarian at the Centre for Crime, Judicial and Sociological studies in the centre of Viterbo

His alleged latest victim has claimed she was repeatedly abused by him during their relationship between September last year and August this year.

The allegations are said to include claims of sexual violence and ‘being forced to have sexual intercourse against her will’, along with assaults which left her with injuries.

The alleged victim’s lawyer Francesco Guido described her as ‘a young and courageous girl who is facing a very difficult time.’

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, he added: ‘My client believes she is the victim of a series of criminal crimes, the most serious of which is sexual assault.

‘She had a relationship with Mr Guede and there were several criminal episodes including some cases of sexual violence.

‘They had known each other for a few years and the relationship lasted for some time. When she reported Mr Guede, her relationship with him had already ended.

‘The girl is very distressed. She is young, she is only 23 years old, and when she met Mr Guede, she was much younger.

‘She is very tired right now. She is going through a very difficult time psychologically.

‘She is a young woman, full of courage. She knows perfectly well that she would have a difficult time reporting, but she decided to do it anyway so that the truth triumphs.’

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both spent four years in prison after being wrongly convicted of murder

Pictured: Rudy Guede seen recently while on day release in Italy in 2021

Guede is also working part-time at a local pizzeria since his release from prison six months ago

The alleged victim started dating Guede following his release from Viterbo prison. He still lives in the historic town where he works in a local library and at a pizza restaurant.

READ MORE: Amanda Knox’s husband lashes out at Meredith Kercher’s ‘cruel’ murderer Rudy Guede after he taunted her by saying ‘I know the truth and she knows the truth’ following his early release from prison 

Mr Guido said she had known about his high profile conviction for the murder of British university student Miss Kercher in the hilltop town of Perugia in November, 2007.

He added: ‘She was very young and very inexperienced. Even though she knew about the crime in Perugia, she evidently trusted him.

‘She is an Italian girl who only has a foreign mother while her father is Italian, and in fact she is an Italian citizen in all respects.’

Miss Kercher from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found semi-naked and with multiple stab wounds after she was sexually assaulted in her bedroom in her shared house in the Umbrian capital just weeks after arriving for a year abroad on her Leeds University course.

The horrific case made headlines around the world when her American student flatmate, Amanda Knox, who was aged 20 at the time, became a suspect.

Knox and her Italian boyfriend at the time Raffaele Sollecito were initially convicted of the murder of Miss Kercher, faking a break-in, and sexual violence. They served nearly four years in jail before they were sensationally acquitted.

Guede was originally sentenced to 30 years for murder at a fast track trial in 2008 after his DNA was found on Miss Kercher’s body and in her room.

But his sentence was reduced to 16 years on appeal, and he was granted day release from Viterbo prison in 2017 to complete a master’s degree in sociology.

Guede was entrusted by social services in December 2020 to carry out the rest of his sentence doing community service.

He was freed from prison on parole in November 2021 after a further cut in his sentence due to his good behaviour.

Guede was accused of assaulting his girlfriend just six months after being discharged from his murder sentence in June this year.

It was revealed this week that a judge had ordered him to wear an electronic tag and not go within 500 metres of his former partner, pending a future potential trial.

Prosecutors had asked him to be placed under house arrest, but the judge ruled that the restraining order banning contact with her was sufficient.

Amanda Knox speaks to the media during a brief press conference in front of her parents’ home March 27, 2015 in Seattle, Washington

Raffaele Sollecito (pictured), who was acquitted over the Brit’s murder along with Amanda Knox, said ‘it seems Guede has not changed’ after he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend

– Rudy Guede, left, is greeted by an unidentified person as he leaves the penitentiary for a temporary release of thirty-six hours, in Viterbo, Italy, on June 25 2016

The move has allowed Guede to continue with his part time jobs working as a researcher and librarian at the Centre for Crime, Judicial and Sociological studies in the centre of Viterbo and at the town’s Sapori pizzeria.

One of his colleagues at the pizzeria told MailOnline that Guede had been on a ‘forced holiday’ due to the case he faced and he had not been at work since last Monday.

The colleague added: ‘He is at home. I don’t know when he is coming in.’

Mr Guido said the victim did not want to talk directly to the media about her ordeal.

He told local media: ‘She is a 23-year-old girl who has suffered trauma and who now also finds herself catapulted into a media event much bigger than her.’

Mr Guido added: ‘It was not easy for her to report her partner. She first had to rationalise the episodes that happened.

‘She needed time and the need to do an internal process, reflections on a personal level which in the end led her to denounce her partner. A very strong act, certainly.’

Prosecutors are said to have medical records detailing treatment the girl received, which she says were for injuries inflicted by Guede.

Mr Guido told MailOnline that the victim could not be identified under Italian law as victims of sexual violence were ‘subject to a series of protection programmes’.

He said that Guede’s appearance in Viterbo court on Monday would involve him being ‘able to present his narrative of the facts and give his version’.

The lawyer added: ‘It is not a public hearing. It is an interrogation that takes place behind closed doors, where only the person under investigation and his lawyer will participate.

‘He will certainly have to appear in court in Viterbo and only his presence together with his lawyer in front of the Judge is expected. I will go to the hearing in Viterbo later.’

Guede’s murder trial heard how his fingerprints and a palm print stained with the blood of Miss Kercher were found in her bedroom.

He claimed he had gone to the apartment with Miss Kercher, and had consensual sexual activity with her.

In a story which was rejected by prosecutors, he said he went to the bathroom and emerged to see a shadowy figure standing over her with a knife as she lay bleeding on the floor. A piece of broken glass by his footprint pointed to him having broken in.

Following Miss Kercher’s death, he fled by train to Germany where he was arrested days later.

Guede later told his victim’s parents in a letter that his hands were stained with her blood because he was trying to save her.

La Repubblica newspaper reported that Guede wrote: ‘If my hands are stained with blood it is because I tried to save Meredith.

‘Fear took over and I ran away like a coward leaving Mez perhaps still alive. I will never stop regretting this.’

Following his release from prison, he continued to maintain his innocence, saying: ‘The sentence I had to serve in the name of the law has ended. Now I am left marked by the judgement of strangers, by the slanted glances as I pass.’

Knox and Sollecito spent four years in prison after initially being convicted of Kercher’s murder before being acquitted in 2011.

They were convicted again in 2014 by an appeals court in Florence, which ruled that the multiple injuries on Kercher’s body suggested that Guede could not have acted alone.

Italy’s highest court overturned the decision in a definitive ruling in 2015 which described ‘stunning flaws’ in the investigation that led to their convictions.

Sollecito reacted angrily this week to news of the sexual violence allegations faced by Guede.

He told La Stampa: ‘It seems Guede has not changed… I don’t follow Guede’s life, but certainly in light of what happened today it seems to me that he hasn’t changed.

‘What he was before entering prison, what we read in the documents, is sadly reconfirmed and equally sad. We see that he has not repented.’

Miss Knox came under suspicion of the murder of Miss Kercher after Italian law enforcement officials believed she was acting strangely.

She was the one to first call the police after she discovered Miss Kercher’s bedroom door locked and blood in the bathroom.

Source: Read Full Article