Timeline

August 2007 Meredith Kercher leaves England for Italy.25 October 2007 Kercher’s American flatmate, Amanda Knox begins a ‘romantic’ relationship with the Italian, Raffaele Sollecito .1 November 2007 Meredith Kercher is murdered.2 November 2007 Kercher body found. Knox states she was with Sollecito.4 November 2007 The post-mortem examination suggests some sexual activity before Kercher is killed, but no conclusion of rape.6 November 2007 Police arrest Amanda Knox, 20, and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23.7 November 2007 Knox identifies her boss, Diya ‘Patrick’ Lumumba , as the killer.15 November 2007 Knox DNA reported to be on kitchen knife handle with Kercher DNA on blade. The suspected murder weapon is found at flat of Sollecito.19 November 2007 Rudy Gued, now on the run, is named as another suspect in killing.20 November 2007 Guede is arrested in Germany as Lumumba is released.27 November 2007 It’s revealed that Knox left a bloody fingerprint in the bathroom.16 September 2008 Knox, Sollecito and Guede appear for first pre-trial hearing. The judge allows Guede to have a fast track trial.28 October 2008 Guede is found guilty of murder.16 January 2009 Trial of Knox and Sollecito begins.4 December 2009 Knox and Sollecito found guilty of murder.22 December 2009 Guede's sentence is cut to 16 years, with the court later reasoning that he was the only one of the three defendants to apologise to the Kercher family for his "failure to come to her rescue"24 November 2010 Knox and Sollecito's appeals get under way.11 December 2010 Knox makes an emotional plea for mercy in court and calls her conviction an 'enormous mistake'.18 December 2010 A review of the DNA evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito is granted.25 July 2011 The court hears from experts who claim that the DNA evidence may have been contaminated, suggesting that police failed to wear the correct protective equipment.3 October 2011 Knox and Sollecito address the court in a bid to appeal their convictions ahead of the jury's verdict. Later that evening, Presiding Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann announces that the jury has acquitted the pair of Kercher's murder.26 March 2013 Italy’s highest court reverses the acquittals and orders Knox and Sollecito to stand trial again in the Court of Assizes of Appeal in Florence.30 September 2013 Retrial of Knox and Sollecito begins in Italy.31 January 2014 Knox and Sollecito's guilty verdicts are reinstated and they are sentenced to 28 years and six months and 25 years respectively and ordered to pay damages to the Kercher family. Both Knox, who was in Seattle at the time of the verdict, and Sollecito, who was in Italy for the trial but left the court before the verdicts were delivered, will appeal to the supreme Court of Cassation.