Meredith suspect 'danced at night club' right after killing 26 November 2007
Rudy Hermann Guede, the Ivory Coast immigrant suspected of sexually assaulting and killing Meredith Kercher in Perugia, went dancing at a disco after her murder.
Witnesses have testified to police that they saw Guede at the 'Domus' disco from two in the morning onwards until 4.30am on Friday November 2.
Kercher, 21, was found semi-naked with her throat cut on 1 November in the Italian university city.
These new revelations about Guede come as police hunting the killer of Kercher are seeking two more suspects.
Italian detectives apparently believe Kercher was murdered after a sex and drugs party which took "a tragic and nasty turn".
And despite already having three people in custody, officers are still reportedly hunting another man and a woman who were part of the group at Kercher's apartment, in Perugia, on the night of her death.
The manhunt was sparked by blood and "organic substances" on tissues recovered from Kercher's bedroom and the street outside, according to Italian newspaper reports.
None of the traces - which belong to "a male and a female" - are from the three suspects currently being held.
Kercher's flatmate, American student Amanda Knox, 20, her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 23, and Guede, a convicted drugs dealer, are all in custody.
Over the weekend, it emerged Guede, 20, who is in custody in Germany, had given a vivid account of the night of Kercher's murder, even claiming she whispered the initials of her killer to him as she lay dying.
Suspect Guede, pictured here in a photo on his Facebook page
Guede, who is under armed guard in the German city of Mainz, was arrested after a tense cat and mouse game over the internet service Skype, which can be used for phone and email.
Police in Perugia believe he fled to Germany within hours of Miss Kercher's murder on November 1.
But a friend identified only as 'M' agreed to help them contact him.
In a hushed room crowded with senior police officers, M told Guede: "They are after you for the murder of Kercher. What have you done?"
His lawyer refused to reveal the name but said it would be "at the centre of the defence case" when Guede is extradited to Italy from Germany, where he was arrested.
The key questions are how he came to be involved with suspects Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito – and why Kercher was killed.
The scene: Detectives apparently believe Meredith was murdered after a sex and drugs party at her apartment
The fugitive admitted he had been at Miss Kercher's house the night she died, saying she had invited "me round for a drink".
During a three-hour internet exchange he claimed they had sex, with Kercher a willing participant.
At that point, with police passing M notes of what to say, Guede denied he had killed her.
He claimed that he had gone to the bathroom because of an upset stomach when he heard the doorbell ring.
After that he said he heard "the English girl" screaming.
Her throat had been slashed "by an Italian lad with chestnut hair. We knocked into each other, I was also injured, but I cannot remember clearly the face of that man.
"Then I ran away, I was scared. I am not the one who killed her".
Forensic evidence places Guede undeniably at the centre of the crime. His fingerprints were all over Kercher's bedroom, his DNA has been found and there were even particles of his hair clenched in the dead girl's hands.
Police say their tests show that Kercher had not had "consensual sex" as Guede claimed, but had probably been held down.
There was also evidence of an attempt to hide her body in a cupboard.
Later today a court will decide whether a second post-mortem should be carried out on Kercher.
Her funeral has been held back despite her body being flown back to England two weeks ago.
The hearing before judge Claudia Mateini will decide if the original post-mortem by pathologist Luca Lalli was adequate or whether another should be carried out.
Laywers for Congolese bar owner Diya Patrick Lumumba, 38, made the request to establish a precise time of death as their client was held on suspicion of murdering Kercher.
Last night police sources in Perugia painted a picture of Guede, who has dual Ivory Coast and Italian citizenship, as a misfit "obsessed with foreign girls".
He was recently involved in a stabbing incident in Perugia's main square, where students and local youngsters smoke cannabis and drink late at night. Guede was five when he arrived in Italy from the Ivory Coast with his father.
Shortly afterwards, he was taken under the wing of wealthy Perugia businessman Paolo Caporali, now 62. He fostered Guede "to give him a chance in life" and sent him to Vittorio Emanuele II school – one of the city's best.
Initially, the act of charity appeared to have been a success. "My sons considered him as a brother," recalls Mr Caporali. Teachers described Rudy as "happy, lively and well integrated".
Then he began taking drugs, his character changed abruptly and Mr Caporali realised he had made a mistake.
He recalled: "I was trying to help Rudy build a future. I thought I gave him a good opportunity.
"But he revealed himself to be a great liar. He would say he would go to lessons, then skip them. His results were lousy. He preferred sitting in front of the TV and video games to studying.
"He had no interest in work either. When I realised what was happening I wanted to distance him from my family. He went away."
Guede left for a while, but when he returned to Perugia in January, Mr Caporali gave him a second chance, finding him work as a gardener.
It was another mistake. Guede simply vanished again in August and the next Mr Caporali heard of him was when detectives investigating Kercher's murder arrived at his door.
Police are confident that the three suspects were brought together by drugs, and that Knox is the key figure.
Reports at the weekend shed fresh light on her character and behaviour.
Lumumba, who employed Knox as a barmaid, described her as irrational, vengeful and insanely jealous.
"I don't think she's evil," he said. "To be evil, you have to have a soul. Amanda doesn't. She's empty; dead inside. She's the ultimate actress, able to switch her emotions on and off in an instant."
Sollecito described her as having "an almost non-existent contact with reality".
In a letter from prison to his father he wrote: "She lived life like a dream, reality didn't enter. Her only goal was the search for pleasure at all times."
But he continued to deny any involvement in Kercher's murder, and said he believes Knox is innocent, too, writing that even the thought that his girlfriend could be involved is "impossible".
Lumumba said Knox, who styled herself Foxy Knoxy on a website, was eaten up with jealousy of Kercher, who he described as a "natural charmer".
He said: "Amanda tried much harder, but was less popular. I didn't realise it at the time, but now I see that she was jealous. She wanted to be the queen bee, and as the weeks passed, it became clear that she wasn't.
"She hated anyone stealing her limelight – and that included Meredith."
Lumumba eventually sacked Knox as a barmaid over her obsessive flirting with customers. That, he says, was why she framed him.
"She was angry and wanted revenge," he said. "By the end, she hated me."
Those who knew Knox also say she was a "woman hater", possibly as the result of her mother having a string of affairs while she was growing up.
Knox's account of what happened on the night of November 1 has changed repeatedly.
At one stage, after asking for paper to write down her thoughts, she wrote: "I know all of this is very strange. But what has happened is, to me, like for others, very confused. Let me tell you something, in my mind. I have things I remember and others which are very confused. Truth? It is that I am not sure of what is the truth."
Knox, Sollecito and Guede have been described as misfits whose drug use removed them even further from society.
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