Amanda Knox's murder conviction: Does it help if you're pretty, white and flush the loo?

10 things Fleet Street Fox learned from Foxy Knoxy being found guilty again and the murder of Meredith Kercher

Six years ago a 21-year-old woman was murdered.
Meredith Kercher was a long way from home, studying in Italy, when one night she was sexually assaulted and stabbed by more than one person. She struggled, she knew what was happening, and she took a while to die from blood loss and suffocation.
From that day to this, we have had detail, claim and counter-claim hurled at us as flatmate 

Amanda Knox, her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and a drifter called Rudy Guede have fought and scrabbled to avoid being jailed for the killing.
Meredith's family still don't know, for sure, who was responsible. They don't know quite why they lost Meredith, and we're all adrift as to whether or not justice has been done.
But there is a whole BUNCH of things about what's happened with Foxy Knoxy and her chums which are pretty illuminating:

1. If you're pretty people think you're incapable of murder

Yes, I know she says it wasn't her. But anyone with half a brain cell can clock the fact that trying to implicate an innocent man makes her about as balanced as a Weeble and less predictable. That should be enough for the sane and logical among us to question her account; yet in America she enjoys unalloyed support, fundraising campaigns, and an unshakeable belief in her innocence.
Since the beginning of time the good-looking and glamorous have had a better chance of dodging justice. From Ethel Le Neve who was charged with helping her lover Dr Crippen kill his wife to OJ Simpson to Nigella Lawson who admitted cocaine use and was then told no-one wanted to prosecute; life's just easier if you're pretty.
I'd bet my bottom dollar they would all have gone down if they'd looked like Karen Matthews.
Somehow, a symmetrical face makes us want to think the best of people. Humans, eh?

2. Hygiene above all things

It's a common animal behaviour to poo in places you know. My dog does it under the same tree in the park every day, without fail. When I'm on holiday it backs up, because it's a strange toilet. When Keith Duffy was in Celebrity Big Brother in 2001 he wasn't able to go for more than a week.
After Meredith was killed, Rudy was identified from DNA on, among other items, toilet paper he used after having a poo. Never mind what this might tell us - How could he be relaxed enough to take a dump after a sexual assault and murder? Was it before or after? Was it a toilet he knew? - this is plainly a lesson to us all: you don't want to poo in places you don't know, and REMEMBER TO FLUSH.

3. Race matters

Amanda's white and everyone has an opinion about her; Meredith was mixed race, and no-one seems much bothered about her. The man Amanda wrongly accused was black, and the only person convicted and serving time for the murder so far is also black. There are no American media campaigns to free the black guy, despite the fact the coroner's report found Meredith was murdered by more than one person.
Added to which, Rudy was convicted and exhausted his appeals process in a few short years. The two white suspects will be able to play legal games with appeals, extradition rules and the US constitution for a long while to come. Ah, equality.

4. The Italian legal system is a mess

In Italy, the accused is only considered as such after a trial. Then there's an automatic appeal to a second trial, after which they may be found innocent or guilty. After this the accused might appeal to the Supreme Court, which either knocks it back to the second court or issues a sentence. As clear and sound as mud.
Amanda Knox and her parents are both facing further trials for slander on the basis they claimed the police had assaulted and mistreated her during questioning. The cases were brought by the police themselves, began in 2011 and have since been mired in adjournments. Were any of these things possible in Britain the courts would be in a total state with cases dragging on interminably for years without resolution and... ah.

5. Take time to get to know someone

The two main suspects met each other just seven days before the killing. Because of one week of hormonal student intensity they're bound together for life and forever linked with the brutal sexual assault and murder of a young woman.
Never mind whether you believe in love at first sight - unless you know they definitely won't get you involved in their flatemate's gruesome murder and lead you into a lifetime on the run, it's probably best to let it brew for a few weeks before you declare your undying love.

6. Raffaelle Sollecito is a plank

Weeks before the retrial Raffaelle was in the Dominican Republic, which has no extradition treaty with Italy. If he's that afeared of being convicted you'd think he'd stay there - but no, he went back, and predictably got convicted.
Twenty four hours later a man with the most famous face in Italy after Paolo Maldini approached the border with passport in hand and a furtive expression, and unsurprisingly got nicked.
He's reportedly asked two women, one his co-accused, to marry him in an effort to get immunity from extradition. He's denied it all but then, as Mandy Rice-Davies said, he would say that, wouldn't he?

7. Money talks

Amanda Knox was paid £2.4million to write a book about the murder and her court case and has spent more time in TV studios, spiking a few more sales with every appearance, than I can count. When the retrial came around, she said she "couldn't afford" to attend.
Hmm.

8. It is unwise to predict things

In one of her many 'please like me' interviews before the verdict Amanda was asked how she'd feel if Sollecito was jailed while she remained free in America. She said: "That would drive me crazy. I don't know what I could do, but I'd do it. There would be action. And there would be an outcry."
Let's just sit here and wait for her to launch that 20-year campaign reminding people what she was accused of, shall we?

9. We have an unending appetite for speculating about stuff we can't possibly know

The phrases "Amanda Knox is innocent" and "Amanda Knox is guilty" both appear on millions of web pages. The internet is awash with human beings who were not present at murder, autopsy or court who nevertheless feel inclined to tell us what they think about all three and offer theories as to who did what and when.
Only three people know for sure - Rudy, Amanda, and Raffaele. And all of them have changed their stories repeatedly in the past five years. You might as well build an opinion on fog.

10. Justice delayed is justice denied

It's taken more than six years and we're no further on than the day Meredith was killed. Amanda is significantly richer, but then so are her lawyers. Raffaele is just as daft as he seems to have always been, and Rudy is about as reliable as his criminal record of drug dealing would imply.
Meredith is still dead, and finding out who's responsible has been about as effective and farcical as a game of Pin The Tail On The Donkey.
Added to which, guilty or innocent, Amanda and Raffaele will have 'alleged murderers of Meredith Kercher' hanging over their heads until the day they die.
Is that justice? Doesn't smell like it to me.