Kercher Murder: Knox Flies Home To US

Amanda Knox is flying home to the US after her conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher was overturned.

Miss Knox , 24, landed in London this afternoon with her family after leaving Fiumicino Airport in Rome on a British Airways flight.

Heathrow Airport confirmed she had arrived in Britain but it is understood she was catching a connecting flight to her hometown of Seattle.

She and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were freed on Monday night after their murder convictions were quashed.

They had spent four years in prison, with the American serving a 26-year sentence and Mr Sollecito 25 years over Miss Kercher's death in 2007.

The 21-year-old was discovered semi-naked with her throat cut in her bedroom at the house she shared with Miss Knox in Perugia.

Miss Knox joined her family in the VIP lounge in Rome before boarding the plane, where onlookers said she looked "tired and drawn".

Dressed in black leggings, grey cardigan and a dark top, the American was pulling a large black suitcase.

Pictures taken at the airport showed her beaming as she made her way to the departure gate.

Her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said: "She was calm, serene and looking forward to going home and just spending some time with her friends and family.

"She wants to get on with her life. She is a clever and intelligent girl who has been through a lot."

He added: "This case should never have come to court. Will there be an investigation? I doubt it.

"Amanda will now have some time in Seattle and then get on with her life and her family will also want to get back to theirs."

The family were driven to Rome late last night, where they were put up in what was described as "safe accommodation".

Italo-American Foundation spokesman Corrado Maria Daclon said Miss Knox felt "no bitterness" towards Italy despite her ordeal.

"Her words have always been positive, she is tired but full of hope," she said.

"She is certainly very drained but even after all this time she does not have any resentment or animosity.

"She is a simple girl, always ready to help with great humanity and sensibility, very different to how she has been described."

Miss Knox is now expected to strike a \$1m deal with an American TV network as all the main stations frantically compete to secure her first interview.

The American, who wept as her conviction was overturned, has already released a letter thanking her supporters.

She acknowledged the people "who shared my suffering and helped me survive with hope".

"Those who wrote, those who defended me, those who were close, those who prayed for me - I love you, Amanda," she said.

The judge delivered the verdicts exonerating Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito after 11 hours of jury deliberations.

He said Miss Knox was acquitted for "not committing the act", adding that the evidence was not reliable.

But her conviction for slandering bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, who she had accused of the murder, was upheld.

She was given a three-year jail term for the offence but still freed because of time served and has to pay him 22,000 euros (£18,792) in damages.

Miss Knox's father Kurt and mother Edda Mellas were in court and her family have hailed the end of their "nightmare".

And in Seattle, supporters watching the proceedings on television in a hotel were overjoyed and shouted jubilantly: "She's free!"

An independent court-ordered report into the hotly-disputed DNA evidence was key to the latest verdict.

Forensic professors from Rome's La Sapienza University Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti had attacked the original investigation.

However, prosecutors have described the court's decision as a "massive mistake" and intend to take the case to a third and final appeal.

The original prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said: "This is only the second stage. We are going to take this to the third and final level at the Supreme Court in Rome."

Prosecutors will examine the report yet to be written by Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman before deciding the grounds of their appeal.

A panel of judges in Rome will then decide whether there have been any mistakes in law and if the case should be reopened.

Miss Knox would not be obliged to attend a potential retrial and the US is unlikely to accede to any request for her extradition.

Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds University course and had only been in Italy for two months before she was killed.

At the first trial in 2009, it was claimed Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito murdered the Briton with the help of a third man - Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede.

Guede , 24, was convicted in a separate 2008 trial of the sexual assault and murder of the Briton.

His conviction was upheld on appeal, although his sentence was reduced to 16 years.