The Murder of Meredith Kercher:

If the mixed heritage murdered student Meredith Kercher looked like Amanda Knox, the victim in this gruesome and sadistic tragedy would have rightly taken centre stage. Instead what we witnessed since Meredith’s death has little short of a ‘beauty’ obsessed freak show that positions Ms Knox at the centre, either as a ‘scheming murderous temptress’ and ‘Foxy Knoxy’, or as one pundit put it ‘a woman hounded because of her beauty’.

The obsession about Knox’s looks has inspired one author to capitalise on it with a best selling book shockingly titled the ‘Fatal gift of beauty’. So worried about the now prevailing latter view of the convicted woman the Italian Prosecution has repeatedly asked the courts, ‘not to judge this woman by her looks’.

If Knox were to be released due to the dismissal of DNA evidence that originally helped convict her and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, there is no doubt there would be deluge of multi- million dollar book deals and Hollywood scripts awaiting the freed Knox.

But who is talking about Meredith Kercher. Born to an Indian mother Arline and English father John, Meredith Kercher was a bright student who loved life but refused to engage with the ‘drink, sex and drugs excesses’ her room mate relished. A resistance that ultimately cost her life. In the Knox media circus Meredith and her grieving family barely feature.

What has played out around the murder of this young English girl has not only been the tragic waste of a young life but also a snap-shot of prejudice, in particularly the worlds media and the Italian the justice system that has been skewed whether you are white or Black, rich or poor, or deemed to be ‘beautiful’.

We will possibly never really know exactly what involvement Knox and her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito had in Meredith’s murder. What we do know is that she was prepared to see an innocent man languish in jail for a murder she knows he never committed.

Patrick Lumumba employed Knox to work in his bar in Perigu. She told police she could hear Lumumba murdering Kercher amid her screams. Lumumba was dragged out of his bed by armed guards and placed in a cell for two weeks. Lumumba claims the accusations levelled against him ruined his life.

The other protagonist in this trail was Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast. He was talked into having a fast track trial that would afford him a lesser sentence if found guilty. The Judge gave him 30 years-four more years than both Knox and Sollecito. What we see then is one innocent Black man -Lumumba - betrayed by Amanda Knox to save her own skin, .And another Black man –Guede –in all probability guilty – yet denied the same legal process as the other two white suspects were afforded.

The greatest victims in this whole saga is the Kercher family. It is difficult to know why the worlds media seems to have more interest and sympathy for the Knox family than they do the Kercher family. Meridith’s father John recently said, he was appalled by the ‘minor celebrity’ status afforded to Amanda Knox. Sadly, notions of beauty, class status and racial discrimination seem to be unnecessary factors being played out in the murder of Meredith Kercher.

Simon Woolley

Banner picture: Meredith Kercher