Amanda Knox speaks out about new partner and life after prison

AFTER being accused of murder and thrown in jail, Amanda Knox was always going to struggle to fit in back home. But now she’s started a new life.

THE former college student accused of murdering her roommate in a bizarre crime that gripped a small Italian town has revealed what life is like after her wrongful conviction.

In November 2007, police walked into a horror crime scene at an apartment in Perugia.

There was a streaky, bloody handprint on the wall, a ripped bra and leg protruding out from underneath a doona. It belonged to Meredith Kercher, a young and beautiful British exchange student who moved to Perugia from England to study.

Amanda Knox was her roommate, an all-American 20-year-old college student who was later portrayed as a sex-crazed, vicious psychopath who was responsible for the murder.

Ms Knox was found guilty of the murder in 2009, alongside her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. The wrongful conviction changed her life forever.

After six years of trying to prove their innocence, the pair were acquitted and the case closed in 2015.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

Rudy Guede was also convicted of Meredith’s murder alongside Mr Sollecito and Ms Knox and he remains behind bars.

Now Ms Knox is speaking out about how she has found love outside prison and plans to go back to Perugia, where her college exchange dream was shattered.

She told People magazine she needed to return to the city to face the past trauma she had experienced there.

“The only way that I’m going to come full circle is by physically, literally, coming full circle,” she said.

However, she admits it is “probably the least welcome place for me in the entire world”.

She said it was important for her not to fear Perugia and wants to see it through different eyes.

She wants to replace her traumatic memories with something more hopeful.

Her views have changed, after previously saying she would never step foot on Italian soil again.

Meredith Kercher was killed in 2007. Picture: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Speaking through their lawyer, the family of the slain college student told Italian news service ANSA Meredith’s murder was a painful part of Perugia's history, and Ms Knox’s return would be “totally inopportune”.

“A return of Amanda Knox to Perugia is unpopular and unjustified,” laywer Francesco Maresca said.

Ms Knox, now 30, told People magazine she feared the murder would haunt her forever.

“When I first came home, I was afraid that the prosecution’s narrative would forever limit and define me,” she said.

When Ms Knox was released from prison and moved back to Seattle, she wasn’t given much hope.

“I was told that my best-case scenario would likely consist of me writing my memoir and then disappearing,” she said.

“Whether I deserved it or not, there was nothing I could do but accept that the story of the girl accused of murdering her roommate would be the frame through which people viewed and consumed me, and through which I had to pass to live my life.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am that things didn’t turn out that way.”

Amanda Knox breaks down in tears after hearing the verdict that overturns her conviction and acquits her of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher. Picture: Tiziana Fabi/Getty Images)

Ms Knox had to give up on love with her ex-boyfriend, Mr Sollecito, after they were both thrown in jail, but she has managed to move on and has again fallen in love and wants to have children. She also writes a column for the West Seattle Herald and fights for others who have been wrongfully convicted.

Her new partner, Christopher Robinson, met Ms Knox at a book launch in 2015 after she reviewed a novel he co-wrote.

“I was probably the only person at the party who didn’t really know who she was,” he told People.

“I knew [about] Italy and some legal stuff and something that shouldn’t have happened. But I didn’t really know her story.”

Amanda Knox gave up on love in prison but has moved on with Christopher Robinson. Picture: Instagram

Ms Knox is enjoying her new life and looking towards her future with Mr Robinson.

“I don’t want to get married for the sake of getting married. My hope is that I have a partner with whom I can continue to take on the world ... and I very much love Chris and feel like he is my partner,” she said.

“And he would be a wonderful dad and we talk about it all the time.

“So I look forward to that part of my life that I had always taken for granted growing up and then had to let go of in prison.”