Meredith Kercher’s killer released from jail 12 years after murder conviction
A DRIFTER convicted of murdering British university student Meredith Kercher has been released from jail.
Rudy Guede, 33, who was convicted in 2008, will finish his 16-year sentence doing community service for charities in Viterbo, near Rome.
Meredith, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey was found half-naked with her throat cut in Perugia, Italy, in September 2007.
Her housemate Amanda Knox, 33, and Knox’s then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 36, were also convicted of murder but were released in 2011 following an appeal.
Last year The Sun on Sunday revealed how Guede was on day release and working at a local library as we pictured him smirking while cycling to and from jail.
Guede was originally given 16 years but will serve the final years doing community service for local charities after his lawyer struck a deal with judges.
In September 2007 Meredith had just moved to Perugia in central Italy where she was studying at the city's prestigious university. She was murdered two months later.
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Guede is the only person handed a final conviction in connection to the case.
In 2010, Italy's top appeal court upheld a 16-year sentence for him in a ruling intriguingly stating that he did not act alone.
He has been serving his sentence in Viterbo prison just north of Rome and will fully complete his sentence in March 2022.
Guede's lawyer Fabrizio Ballarini said: ''He will continue with his studies and will also carry on his work with Caritas (Italian charity). He will live in an apartment in central Viterbo that has been made available for him.
"We are very satisfied with the decision which has come about because of my client's desire and intelligence and who did not waste his time while in prison but put it to good use and studied hard.''
Guede's DNA was found on Meredith and he later fled the country, escaping by train to Germany where he was arrested days after the murder.
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Guede said he went into a "state of shock" after finding Kercher dead following a visit to the bathroom after meeting her on the night she was killed.
Earlier this year it was revealed he was planning to write a book about the murder.
Meredith's father John died in February.
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