Kercher family at court hearing

The family of the murdered British student Meredith Kercher attended a court hearing into her death in Italy yesterday.

The Leeds University student was killed on1 November last year. The 21-year-old from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found with her throat slit at the house she shared in the northern Italian town of Perugia.

Amanda Knox, 20, a US citizen, her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, and Ivorian Rudy Hermann Guede, 21, are all being held on suspicion of sexual assault and murder.

Leaks to the Italian media last week suggested that Ms Kercher may not have been sexually assaulted on the night she was murdered, as the Perugia police had originally maintained.

A court-appointed expert told reporters before the hearing that there was not enough forensic evidence to conclude that she had been sexually assaulted or strangled.