Kercher judge orders new DNA test

30 September 2013 Last updated at 16:07 ET

The Italian judge hearing the retrial of Amanda Knox and and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of Meredith Kercher has ordered a new DNA test on a knife allegedly used in the killing.

The two suspects spent four years in jail for the 2007 murder, but their convictions were overturned on appeal.

That ruling was itself overturned in March by Italy's highest court.

A separate trial convicted Rudy Guede from Ivory Coast of Miss Kercher's murder. He is serving 16 years in jail.

Neither the American Amanda Knox, nor her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, were in court for the start of the hearing in Florence.

Ms Knox was the housemate of Miss Kercher - a 21-year-old Briton who was found in their student lodgings in Perugia with her throat slashed.

Miss Kercher's sister Stephanie wrote to the court to express the family's feelings, nearly six years on from the brutal killing.

"We desperately want to discover the truth," she wrote, "and find justice for Meredith."

Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon in south London, was an undergraduate at the University of Leeds and was studying on an exchange programme at the University of Perugia at the time of her death.

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Kercher judge orders new DNA test