Meredith Kercher murder: Witness heard 'prolonged' scream

Published on Friday 27 March 2009 15:18

A WITNESS in the Meredith Kercher murder trial told today how she heard a scream that "made her skin crawl" the night the British student was stabbed to death.

Nara Capezzali, whose apartment in Perugia, Italy overlooks the one where Miss Kercher was killed in 2007, imitated the sound in court.

She also told the court that shortly after the scream, she heard the steps of at least two people running.

Miss Kercher's body was found in the bedroom of the flat she shared with Amanda Knox.

The 21-year-old American student and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito ,24, are on trial in Perugia accused of murdering foreign exchange student Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, after she refused to participate in a sex game.

Ms Capezzali made a screeching noise to imitate the scream she said she heard from her living room's window.

"It was a prolonged woman's scream," she said. "It was not normal, it made my skin crawl. Every time I walk near that window, I hear it again."

She said she heard the sound of running on a metal staircase near a parking lot as well as heard footsteps running through leaves and gravel. She said she looked out of the window but "did not see anything."

When defence lawyers pressed her, she began sounding confused and said she could not be sure of the date she heard the scream.

Knox and Sollecito were escorted into court today looking relaxed and smiling as they greeted their lawyers.

A third man, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede, who tried to sexually assault Miss Kercher was convicted of murder in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

More Perugia residents were expected to give evidence about what they heard or saw the night of the murder.