The Final Insult
The murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 has left a trail of destruction in its wake.
The young Londoner and her family are the most obvious victims.
Yet the Kercher family have behaved with the most restraint and dignity of all the participants - never for a moment seeking anything other than justice for Meredith.
The Italian appeal court overturned the original guilty verdict on the basis that it was 'unsafe' - largely because of a botched police investigation and doubts over the reliability of DNA evidence.
Amanda Know and Rafael Sollecito have finally won their freedom but at great cost -because their inexplicable behaviour in the days that followed Meredith's brutal murder left a bad taste in many people's mouths.
Which was evident from the immediate public response outside the courthouse.
Shock at the death of a friend or colleague is one thing - dissembling and changing your stories quite another - even worse was the attempt to implicate another perfectly innocent person in such a dreadful crime.
But these personal failings had been carefully coached out of Knox and Sollecito in time for their appeal hearing - where they were judged ultimately to be 'not guilty' of the heinous murder of Meredith Kercher.
So the Italian criminal justice system seems to have done the right thing in the end.
Knox and Sollecito can re-start their broken lives - the Italian police and forensic scientists can learn from their mistakes - but the Kercher family are the ones left without closure.
I've never heard anyone from the Kercher family speak with bitterness towards Amanda Knox and Rafael Sollecito - even when the pair were sent down 'guilty as charged'.
Yet they must be wondering now - how to make sense of it all.
I hope they are not left fending for themselves in some dreary hotel room in Perugia - because that really would be the final insult.
The young Londoner and her family are the most obvious victims.
Yet the Kercher family have behaved with the most restraint and dignity of all the participants - never for a moment seeking anything other than justice for Meredith.
The Italian appeal court overturned the original guilty verdict on the basis that it was 'unsafe' - largely because of a botched police investigation and doubts over the reliability of DNA evidence.
Amanda Know and Rafael Sollecito have finally won their freedom but at great cost -because their inexplicable behaviour in the days that followed Meredith's brutal murder left a bad taste in many people's mouths.
Which was evident from the immediate public response outside the courthouse.
Shock at the death of a friend or colleague is one thing - dissembling and changing your stories quite another - even worse was the attempt to implicate another perfectly innocent person in such a dreadful crime.
But these personal failings had been carefully coached out of Knox and Sollecito in time for their appeal hearing - where they were judged ultimately to be 'not guilty' of the heinous murder of Meredith Kercher.
So the Italian criminal justice system seems to have done the right thing in the end.
Knox and Sollecito can re-start their broken lives - the Italian police and forensic scientists can learn from their mistakes - but the Kercher family are the ones left without closure.
I've never heard anyone from the Kercher family speak with bitterness towards Amanda Knox and Rafael Sollecito - even when the pair were sent down 'guilty as charged'.
Yet they must be wondering now - how to make sense of it all.
I hope they are not left fending for themselves in some dreary hotel room in Perugia - because that really would be the final insult.
