In 2007, Rudy Guede murdered Meredith Kercher. Yet his name remains obscure, while an innocent woman’s became a tabloid obsession.
Guede murdered Meredith Kercher in her apartment building in Italy. The press barely mentioned his sentence, too busy assassinating Amanda Knox in print and on television. He was the sole perpetrator of the crime, yet he received a sentence of only sixteen years and served just thirteen.
This article is not about that crime, but about the charges he is now facing for sexual assault. Had Amanda Knox been facing new charges, we would not be able to turn a page in a newspaper without seeing her name. Yet with Guede, this alleged assault has been almost completely ignored by the mainstream press.
Meredith
In November 2007, British student Meredith Kercher was murdered in Perugia, Italy. Guede was arrested alongside Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, and the Italian media spun a lurid tale of a sex game gone wrong.
Before Knox even went to trial, Guede was found guilty of the murder. His fingerprints and DNA were discovered at the crime scene, and an Italian judge sentenced him to thirty years in prison.
Even though Guede’s DNA was the only forensic evidence found at the scene and he had already been convicted, both Knox and Sollecito were put on trial. The prosecution insisted Guede had not acted alone.
Various appeals and court cases followed, putting the Kercher family through repeated trauma even though Guede had already been found guilty a year after Meredith’s death. Knox and Sollecito eventually cleared their names, eight years after the horrific murder.
During this time, Guede appealed his sentence, claiming that the media coverage had resulted in a particularly harsh ruling. The judge agreed and reduced his sentence to sixteen years. Thirteen years into that sentence, in 2021, Guede was released on good behaviour.
At the time of Guede’s release, Amanda Knox said that Guede had been able to cause harm to more young women since leaving prison. She wrote on X:
>Guede was never held fully accountable for murdering Meredith, as he was only convicted of rape and of ‘participating in the murder.’ Essentially he was charged with being an accomplice for a crime he committed alone.
Life After Prison
Whilst Guede was in prison, he began a relationship with a woman from Viterbo. On his release, the relationship continued. In 2023, the woman ended it after filing charges against him for sexual assault, mistreatment and stalking.
Little has been reported about this case in the media, despite the seriousness of the charges against a man who is already a convicted murderer.
Since the accusations, Guede has been placed under special surveillance. He is banned from contacting the woman, including on social media. He wears an electronic tag and must inform the police anytime he leaves the city where he resides.
Trial
The case has a vast body of evidence, including over 100,000 photos, thousands of chat messages and audio recordings of exchanges between Guede and the accuser. These are expected to play a central role in the upcoming trial.
Guede will go to trial on 4 November 2025 on charges of alleged sexual assault, personal injury and mistreatment.
His lawyer, Carlo Mezzetti, told CNN that his client was innocent and feared he would not receive a fair trial given his previous conviction.
It remains to be seen whether the national press will publicise this case as much as they would if Amanda Knox were facing new charges. Having vilified Knox for so many years, her name is still more closely associated with Meredith Kercher’s murder than the man who actually committed it.
That fact says a lot about the society we live in where a wrongly convicted woman is known and a convicted murderer is ignored. Justice is rarely completely served it appears.
“I stopped trying to be understood by everyone. I stopped trying to control the story they were telling about me. Because I couldn’t. And neither can you.” – Amanda Knox