Amanda Knox, "relieved and grateful" that Italy's highest court overturned her conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher, has described her British flat-mate as "my friend" who "deserved so much in this life."

In a rare decision, the supreme Court of Cassation overturned last year's convictions by a Florence appeals court and declined to order another trial. The judges declared that Knox and her then Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 31, did not commit the crime in 2007 - a stronger exoneration than merely finding that there was not enough evidence to convict. The ruling brings to a definitive end the high-profile case that captivated trial-watchers on both sides of the Atlantic.