THE ITALIAN accused with his former girlfriend Amanda Knox of murdering Briton Meredith Kercher in 2007 has appealed to a court to dismiss the "absurd" charges.
Addressing the court in Florence, Raffaele Sollecito, 29, said he had faced "incredible persecution that makes no logical sense at all to me" during a six-year ordeal in which he was found guilty and sent to prison in 2009, then freed on appeal in 2011 before a retrial was ordered this year.
He said: "I've been described as a cold and ruthless killer but none of that is true at all.
"Amanda was the first real love of my life. We wanted to have a life away from everything to live out our own little fairy tale.
"I ask you, humbly, to look at the reality of this whole episode and see the big mistake that's been made."
Ms Knox, now back in her home town of Seattle, has opted not to return to Italy for the trial.
She has repeatedly denied killing Kercher.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student, was sharing a house with Ms Knox during a year abroad in the picturesque hill town of Perugia when she was killed. The attack left her body with 40 stab wounds and a deep slash to the throat.
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