Ex-bar owner who Amanda Knox wrongly accused of murdering a British student slams her bid to get slander conviction overturned

A former bar owner who was kept in custody for two weeks after Amanda Knox wrongly accused him of murdering a British student has slammed her attempt at getting her slander conviction overturned.

Patrick Lumumba was held for two weeks after Knox said she had ‘covered her ears’ while he slit the throat of her flat mate Meredith Kercher, 21, in a November 2007.

He was only released after a Swiss university’s professor came forward with a till receipt proving the father of two was at work and not involved in the crime that happened in the Italian hilltop town of Perugia.

Knox was initially convicted of murder with her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and served four years in jail before being released in 2012.

However, her conviction for wrongly implicating Patrick was increased to three years but she was freed owing to time served and she has now applied to have this overturned by Italy’s Court of Cassation.

Former bar owner, Patrick Lumumba, who was kept in custody for two weeks after Amanda Knox wrongly accused him of murdering a British student

Speaking to Italian media, Patrick, who now lives in Krawkow, Poland, with his partner and children, stormed: ‘My life has literally been turned upside down.

‘Amanda knew very well that I was innocent, but those few words that she said to the police on the morning of November 6, 2007, ‘… he killed her’, destroyed me in a flash, eliminating the reputation I enjoyed in Perugia.

‘Now she’s demanding the revocation of the conviction for slander, perhaps so that she can be the one to ask for compensation in the millions from the Italian State.’

He added he was ‘disconcerted’ by her and her legal team’s attempt to get the conviction quashed and the case is due to be heard in chambers in Rome next month.

Patrick said: ‘For me they were terrible years. I lost my job and I had to leave Italy. Fortunately, however, I slowly recovered and now I have a beautiful family in Poland.

‘But hearing this absurd request from Amanda makes me fall back into a nightmare. It’s like returning to that tunnel from which I laboriously emerged.’

Knox, from Seattle, is aiming to use European Court of Human Rights precedent for her attempt, which has previously ruled in her favour.

She successfully argued that while being held by Italian police following the murder her rights to a translator and legal assistant were overlooked.

Knox, from Seattle, is aiming to use European Court of Human Rights precedence for her attempt to get the conviction quashed, which has previously ruled in her favour

Patrick said that as a result of his wrongful implication in the murder of Meredith Kercher, he lost his job and had to leave Italy (Pictured: Patrick Lumumba leaving Perugia police station in cuffs)

Patrick Lumumba was held for two weeks after Knox said she had ‘covered her ears’ while he slit the throat of her flat mate Meredith Kercher, 21, in a November 2007

Knox (pictured: left) was initially convicted of murder with her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (pictured: right) and served four years in jail before being released in 2012

21-year-old Meredith Kercher’s half-naked body was discovered in a pool of blood in a back room of the house she shared with Knox in Perugia, central Italy in a November 2007

However his lawyer Carlo Pacelli, believes they are of ‘such a nature and gravity that they did not have an effective impact on the conviction which, therefore, we are sure will be confirmed’.

Knox, according to him, has already had a fair trial which ‘showed that she was responsible for the slander against Patrick, as established beyond any reasonable doubt by all the courts of merit and Cassation’.

He added the argument of Knox’s lawyers that she made the accusation because she was pressured by the investigators and questioned without the presence of a lawyer is also ‘totally unfounded’.

He explained : ‘On the night of November 6, 2007, Amanda went to the police station voluntarily and remained there spontaneously.

‘Here she was interviewed for brief information as a person who could report circumstances useful for the purposes of the investigation and not as a person under investigation.

‘At 1.45 am Amanda accuses Patrick of killing Meredith and takes on the role of witness. At that moment the police still knew nothing and were not ruling out any leads.

‘If Amanda really wanted to back down after that slander she could very well have declared it two days later when she was questioned before the investigating judge, with the assistance of two lawyers.

‘In that circumstance she could easily say “sorry, I was wrong, I accused an innocent person”.

‘Instead, on that occasion she availed yourself, albeit legitimately, of the right not to respond.

‘On November 10th, and in the following days, when her mother went to visit her in prison Amanda told her: ‘Patrick is in prison because of me’.

‘So she first slandered him, she even confessed it to her mother, but she never told the investigators.

‘For this reason the slander was full and repeated and the sentence against her cannot be revoked.’