There’s a programme on TV called Porta Porta. It’s like a discussion programme. F likes watching it but it usually goes on too late for me. Also, it’s quite difficult to follow (for me).

The night before last, they were covering the Kercher murder case/Knox/Sollecito appeal.

Last night, at the restaurant, we (F and I) had a discussion about the result of the appeal. I really wanted to understand why the Italians (and I am generalising here) think Knox and Sollecito are guilty and the appeal came out wrong.

Obviously, we are fed different biases by our media (TV, newspapers, etc.) and I understand that but here are the results of my little survey (of 1 person, I know that, but it’s the best I can do at the moment).

The problem seems to be, that if the result of the original trial was so certain, the Italians question how the appeal could have completely overturned the original result. F said that a woman on the show (that he respects) had said that either the judge in the first trial was sleeping or there is something wrong with the appeal.

I tried to say that the problem was with the DNA evidence (the way it was collected, analysed, etc.) – but this was ignored by F. I said I didn’t understand why the mobiles discarded in the garden weren’t checked for DNA as they had belonged to the two Italian girls also sharing the house. He told me they were Kercher’s phones. I need to check. [Update: I have checked. One belonged to one Italian flatmate – but she had lent it to Meredith. The other was Meredith’s UK phone]

He believes that the police did a good job (outside of Italy, of course, we feel that the police did a botched job at best). He believes that they are guilty (Knox and Sollecito).

But the main problem is that – the first trial having been so decisive on the guilt of the two, Italians fail to understand how it could be that an appeal could have completely overturned that. To them, something stinks. And, whilst it stinks, then the pair are still guilty.

I wonder if we’ll ever really know the truth.