Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty on Thursday after a fresh hearing in Florence, Italy for the murder of Leeds University student Meredith Kercher.
Miss Kercher was stabbed to death in the flat she shared in Perugia with Knox in 2007. Prosecutors believe she was killed as the result of a heated argument.
Miss Knox, who is in the US, was previously found guilty of Kercher’s murder in 2009, however the ruling was later overturned in 2011 due to unreliable DNA evidence.
She was sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail, while Sollecito received 25 years.
Meredith’s brother Lyle and sister Stephanie were present in court when the verdict was read out.
The verdict follows Knox and Sollecito’s acquittal being overturned by the Italian supreme court in March 2013.
During the trial, which lasted for nearly 12 hours, defence lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova told the court that Knox’s innocence was “rock-solid” and that they were awaiting the verdict with “serenity”.
Knox herself did not appear at the trial, having refused to return to Italy while maintaining her innocence. She did, however, send an email to the court defending herself. The email was read out by Knox’s lawyer and stressed that Knox was “not a monster.”
Writing about the night of the murder on her blog, Knox has claimed: “I was not there and had nothing to do with it.” Knox has also repeatedly stated that Rudy Guede, a drug dealer currently serving 16 years for Kercher’s murder, was solely responsible.
Speaking after the verdict, Meredith’s brother said: “No matter what the verdict, it was never going to be a case of celebrating anything. That’s probably the best we could have hoped for.”
Extradition proceedings against Knox, who refused to return to Italy for the case, may now begin.
Knox previously suggested in an interview with The Guardian that she would resist extradition, saying: “I’m definitely not going back to Italy willingly. They’ll have to catch me and pull me back kicking and screaming into a prison that I don’t deserve to be in.”
Sean Hayes