The pair exchange messages on WhatsApp, keeping in touch to swap photos and share family news (Pictures: Getty/PA)
Amanda Knox has reportedly befriended the lawyer who helped put her behind bars.
The 35-year-old was jailed, alongside then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, following the death of her flatmate Meredith Kercher in 2007.
Ms Knox, aged 20 at the time, had returned to her apartment in Perugia, Italy to find a blood-stained crime scene.
Meredith, 21, had been sexually assaulted and then stabbed to death in their shared home.
Detectives swarmed the home and a huge police investigation followed.
Now, on the 15th anniversary of Meredith’s murder, details about Ms Knox’s friendship with prosecutor Giuliano Mignini have been unveiled.
He told The Telegraph: ‘Amanda has changed a lot and I think I can say that I know her.
Meredith Kercher, 21, was sexually assaulted and then stabbed to death in Italy (Picture: PA)
Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said his opinion of Amanda has changed (Picture: Getty)
‘She was defamed by the British tabloids and presented like a Circe but really she is a normal girl from the West.
‘We have different ideas about the trial that involved us, but now I have a good opinion of her.’
The pair first started to speak through the exchange of letters, passed through a priest who had counselled them both previously.
They eventually moved on to chatting over WhatsApp, exchanging family photos and personal news.
Amanda Knox served four years in prison before her conviction was overturned (Picture: AP)
The unlikely friends also met in person in June, when Ms Knox – now 35 – travelled to Italy with her husband and baby.
She also reunited with ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito during the same visit.
At the time, a source close to Meredith’s family had told MailOnline: ‘The family have seen the picture of Knox and Sollecito together in Italy but they don’t want to comment publicly on that as neither of them are of any interest to them – and they don’t want to add to their media visibility.
‘What they have found astonishing is the timing of the decision to publicise this reunion, [it] beggars belief in terms of respect for Meredith.’
Amanda Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were charged for murder (Pictures: Enterprise News and Pictures)
Bar manager Rudy Guede would eventually be jailed for Meredith’s murder, after his bloody fingerprints and DNA was found at the crime scene.
He still maintains his innocence, insisting that while he will ‘never forgive himself for not doing enough to save Meredith’, claiming he is ‘not a murderer’.
Guede was released early from jail last November after an appeal process.
In a tribute to Meredith on the 15th anniversary of her death, her family released a poignant tribute.
In a statement, her surviving siblings said: ‘Every anniversary of Meredith’s death gives us pause for thought, but of course as with anyone who has lost a loved one – especially in such tragic circumstances – it does not take an anniversary to remember them; it’s something you carry with you every day.
‘Fifteen years has passed in the blink of an eye but yet we have lived a lifetime in between – something Meredith sadly, was never afforded.
‘Losing both our parents within just four months of each other in early 2020 brought its own tragedy but we can take some solace in knowing that they are now united with Mez and no longer have to live with the grief which consumed them.
‘Meredith will always be in our thoughts and forever in our hearts.’
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The prosecutor said: ‘We have different ideas about the trial that involved us, but now I have a good opinion of her.’
