Amanda Knox's Former Boyfriend Described as 'Shy and Introverted'

LONDON, July 4, 2009 — -- For months now, U.S. exchange student Amanda Knox has been the focus of the investigation into the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.

On Saturday for the first time, the court heard testimony in defense of Knox's former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Kercher was found dead in her bedroom in the apartment she shared with Knox on Nov. 2, 2007.

Prosecutors say that Knox, Sollecito and a third man, Rudy Guede, killed Kercher in a sex game gone wrong. Guede has been convicted of sexual assault and murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

On Saturday, lawyers for Sollecito called longtime acquaintances to testify on Sollecito's behalf.

They described him as a calm young man who rarely used drugs.

"The television described him as a womanizer, in fact he was shy and introverted," said Saverio Pinetti Mofetta, who has known Sollecito for 10 years.

Mofetta said Sollecito called him on the night of the murder. "He was worried because it happened at his girl's place and it could happen again," he said.

In the days that followed the murder, Knox was photographed in an intimate embrace with Sollecito. The image fueled the prosecution's characterization of Knox as a promiscuous, drug-abusing young woman who, together with Sollecito and Guede, forced Kercher to take part in an orgy against her will.

Sollecito's college friend, Angelo Cirillo, said Sollecito was sexually inexperienced but excited about his new relationship with Knox. Prosecutors asked him to explain a photograph in which Sollecito is shown wielding a meat cleaver. Cirillo described it as a college prank.

"I took that picture and did him up that way," he said. "I wrapped him in toilet paper."

Knox has testified that on the night of the murder she and Sollecito smoked marijuana and had sex at his apartment before she returned to her apartment and discovered Kercher's body.

During the trial, Knox and Sollecito have often appeared in the courtroom at the same time and have exchanged letters. On Friday he gave her a chocolate, apparently for the second time.