Knox book to aid Kerchers? Controversial and 'embarassing' Amanda Knox book written by MP provokes outrage from Meredith's family

An Italian MP's controversial book on convicted killer Amanda Knox opens with him having a bizarre dream about her and goes on to describe how they hug in jail.

Rocco Girlanda's book, 'Take Me With You: Talks With Amanda Knox in Prison' has provoked outrage among investigators on the case, as well as the family of victim Meredith Kercher.There have been suggestions he exploited his position as an MP to gain access to the 23-year-old American who was convicted of the brutal sex murder of Meredith.

Meredith, 21, was found three years ago semi-naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house they shared.

Father of five Mr Girlanda's book opens with a description of how he is in a taxi with Knox heading for New York's JFK airport.

He writes: 'In my hand she places her pink iPod, which plays incessantly The Beatles. I hesitate. I look at it. Then I look at her. She tells me 'This is a gift for you,' looking straight into my eyes.' Meredith Kercher, knox acquitted of murder, Rocco Girlanda never ending embrace, knox appeal $1 million, Next for Knox: How to tell her story

Mr Girlanda, 45, an MP with ruling Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party, adds: 'The conversation continues, until I wake up...I realise my taxi ride with Amanda was just a dream.


'It is not the first dream in which Amanda appears. It will not be the last.'

Later he writes how Knox asked if she could hug him and perhaps unwisely for an MP, he let her:

'A hug: a request that I don't expect. I blush. She holds me, I hold her. It's a never ending embrace, without a word.

'If I said I didn't feel any emotion I would be lying. Maybe my face reveals that.'

Mr Girlanda makes it clear he believes Knox is innocent of the murder and describes their relationship as a 'chemistry, chemistry that gives birth intensity, friendship, between people.'

He adds: 'I have got to know a deep and sensitive person, that I hope and think I will continue to see even after this experience.'

In another part of the book Mr Girlanda describes Knox as being 'more woman' and as 'beautiful as a porcelain doll.'

In another interview he described her as having 'beautiful blue eyes' as he explained he had visited her more than twenty times since she was jailed for murder last December for 26 years.

Meredith's mother, Arline described the MP's book as 'very odd' while their Italian lawyer Francesco Maresca said it was 'embarrassing, inopportune and unfortunate.'

He added: 'His book is not even about the trial. It is about his repeated meetings with Amanda in prison.

'As an MP he is entitled to visit prisoners, but 20 times in less than a year and then to write a book about it ?

'In his descriptions of how he embraces Amanda I wonder if he would embrace the killer of his own daughter or if he is thinking about poor Meredith's family who cannot


'It seems to me that he has profiteered and used his position as an MP to exploit the situation.

It's very clear from the way he writes the book that he believes she is innocent but he did not even attend the trial.'

In an email Knox's mother Edda Mellas wrote: 'We know nothing about the book, have not read it, have never talked to the author. We have no idea where the money from the book will go.

'We understand from Amanda that Girlanda seems like a good guy and we appreciate everyone who supports Amanda.'

But in a further twist, Kurt Knox, Amanda's father, appeared on TV in the States stating that he hoped the book would change public opinion about his daughter.

'We have been trying throughout this whole process to portray Amanda the way we know her and now there's somebody actually from Italy who's gotten to spend time with her,' Curt Knox told US television's Good Morning America.

One investigator in Perugia who asked not to be named said: 'It's quite clear that Mr Girlanda has been influenced by Amanda and not the evidence from the trial.'

Maurizio Ronconi, a fellow centre right politician, said: 'It's not correct to spread an image of Amanda Knox which does not correspond with the fact that she was given a 26 year sentence for murder.

'There is an appeal approaching next month and to publish such a book before the appeal could have an affect on the court's decision. There should be more respect for the victim.'

Speaking of Knox's Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, who was also convicted along with Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 23, Ronconi said: 'They are in jail as well but they are not a white American girl.'

Meredith, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds University degree and had only been in Italy for two months before she was murdered in November 2007.

Source:dailymail