Meredith suspect 'could not tell dreams from reality'

The Italian man held over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has said he thought his girlfriend and fellow suspect Amanda Knox was a pleasure seeker who "could not distinguish dream from reality", it emerged yesterday.

Raffaele Sollecito said in a letter to his father: "She lived her life like a dream... Her life seemed to be pure pleasure; she had a contact with reality that was almost non-existent." He denied being in the room when Ms Kercher was killed.

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But, in a telling aside, he added: "After this experience, believe me, Dad, I will never smoke another joint in my life."

Mr Sollecito, reported to have been an avid knife collector and who was pictured on the Facebook website wielding a meat cleaver, wrote: "I pass the time trying to speak to the doctors, psychologists, teachers and guards, trying to understand what could possibly have happened that night." He said of Ms Knox: "the thought she could be a killer is impossible for me."

However, he accused Ms Knox, who was Ms Kercher's housemate, of lying. "Some of the things she said are not true," he wrote, before adding: "I am paying the price for my own superficiality."

Mr Sollecito, 24, and Ms Knox, 20, have been in custody since 6 November. Another man, Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, is awaiting extradition from Germany. Forensic tests revealed that Mr Guede had sex with Ms Kercher on the night she died. All three deny killing the student.