Relatives of Meredith Kercher, the British student murdered in Perugia in November, were said to be shocked and distressed last night after images of her bloodied corpse were broadcast on Italian television.

The footage, shown in news bulletins by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, showed police forensic scientists examining Ms Kercher’s bedroom and collecting evidence, including her underwear and bloodstained bra, as her body lay near by, beneath a duvet with one foot sticking out.

The row over the images broke out as a Supreme Court judge turned down an appeal for the release of the three suspects in the case — the American student Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito, her former Italian boyfriend, and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast immigrant with joint Italian nationality. “All three requests have been rejected,” said Marco Brusco, a lawyer for Mr Sollecito.

The footage of the bedroom search was broadcast by Telenorba 7, a private television network based in Bari, the home town of Mr Sollecito.

New witness 'saw Meredith suspects together'

Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede were see at the house in Perugia where the American student died

Multimedia

• Murder in Perugia

Background

• Meredith Kercher: Q&A

• New DNA not from Meredith suspects

• Timings crucial to Kercher murder investigation

Related Links

• Meredith suspect incriminates others

• Kercher police find new bloodstains at house

• Kercher suspects move jails

The newspaper Il Giornale said that the video footage showed that although Ms Kercher’s bra was taken for examination soon after the murder, her ripped bra clasp and the surrounding fragment of material on which Mr Sollecito’s DNA was allegedly detected were not catalogued and examined properly. They were eventually catalogued in a second search on 18 December, by which time the evidence had “deteriorated”.

Defence lawyers claim that the crime scene was “contaminated” in the search, making the evidence questionable, and that investigating magistrates failed to follow correct legal procedure by initially questioning Ms Knox without a lawyer present.

Telenorba, which showed the footage late at night, warned viewers that it was disturbing and suitable only for adults. It also showed police scientists in white protective clothing pulling back the duvet to reveal Ms Kercher’s body and slashed throat, and turning the corpse over to examine her bloodied back.

Her eyes were covered by a mask. RAI did not include this part of the footage in its news broadcasts.

The broadcasts came as the three suspects launched their appeal at the Supreme Court in Rome against their continued detention. They were represented by lawyers at the closed hearing at the monumental Palace of Justice on the Tiber, presided over by Judge Torquato Gemelli.

The suspects can be held for up to a year before charges are brought. Prosecutors say that they have scientific evidence linking them to the murder of Ms Kercher, who was found with her throat cut in the whitewashed hillside cottage in Perugia that she shared with Ms Knox and two female Italian students.

She was half-naked under a duvet, and police pathologists say it appeared that she had been sexually assaulted.

Ms Knox, 20, Mr Sollecito, 24, and Mr Guede, 21, all deny involvement in the murder, but have all given conflicting accounts of the night of November 1-2, when Ms Kercher died.

Last week Mr Guede, who had earlier claimed he had seen “a man and a woman” at the cottage, for the first time identified them as Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito .

Lawyers for Mr Sollecito dismissed this as “unfounded”.

Ms Knox’s parents said in a statement: “Information being attributed to Rudy Guede regarding the investigation into the murder of Meredith Kercher is impossible to believe.

“There is no evidence to support his suggestion that Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito were present when Meredith was murdered. Guede lacks credibility just as his current statement lacks credibility.”

The statement added: “We find it quite interesting that this information comes forward just a few days before a Supreme Court hearing in Rome to determine whether or not Amanda should continue to be held in the Le Capanne jail in Perugia. Guede said before that he did not see Amanda and Rafaelle that night, and is now telling a different story.

“We know that Amanda is innocent. There is no evidence against her, and we await her release.”

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