'We don't need to honour her memory in a comedy': Meredith Kercher's sister hits out at Amanda Knox's fringe show
Meredith's sister slammed the idea of the show, saying 'Meredith absolutely wouldn't find these topics of any comedy value'
The sister of murdered teen Meredith Kercher has hit out at a comedy show by Amanda Knox – who was acquitted of killing the British student in Italy in 2007.
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Amanda Knox is launching her own solo comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe, which according to the festival organisers, will detail how she plans to explain her experience in Perugia to her daughter.
Stephanie Kercher told LBC News: “I haven't seen the show. I don't want to see the show. But there is a description there that's 18+. It says descriptions of violence. It's obviously got the case at some point involved in it.
"I don't think we need to honour Meredith's memory in a comedy show. You know, she's honoured elsewhere in the hearts of all those who knew her and further afield.
That's the legacy we would like to leave for Meredith. It's not for someone else to decide if her name's included in comedy. It sets a precedent giving a platform to an individual case and an individual person based on this."
The show will run for 11 days and will kick off on Friday. According to a spokesperson for Knox, it will honour Kercher’s memory.
The show’s title, Cartwheel, is a reference to a story that circulated in the press at the time, which claimed Knox did cartwheels in the police station after her friend’s murder.
Last week, Knox told the Telegraph: "I don't joke about Meredith's death. I joke a lot about how I was vilified, but I don't joke about her murder."
When asked if Kercher would have found her show funny, she said: "Yeah, I think so. I mean, it is funny!"
Stephanie Kercher said: "The story has very much been told many times, and it's something that we keep having to go through all the time, which is extremely painful.
"I don't think we need to honour Meredith's memory in a comedy show," she went on. "It's not for someone else to decide if her name's included in comedy.
The news of the show has been met with backlash, including a petition which was set up by a friend of Meredith’s and has now been signed by over 2,400 people.
The petition claims that the show disrespects her memory, as well as risks normalising violence against women and girls by making light of the horrific event.
The venue for the show, the Gilded Balloon Teviot, maintained that the Fringe Festival offers a platform for a wide range of voices in line with the commitment to freedom of expression.
Speaking to LBC News, Stephanie Kercher points out that since Knox's release from jail, she's been "given an opportunity to go and live her life, and she has choice in career and where she travels to", and yet continues to choose "constant association with Meredith".
Since being released from prison, Knox has released two books and served as an executive producer on the TV drama, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.
Now aged 39, Knox is married with two children, and lives in Washington State.
Knox, originally from Seattle in the US, lived with Kercher, from Surrey, as language exchange students in Perugia, Italy.
Following Kercher’s brutal murder, Knox, then 20, was arrested alongside her then-boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito.
Knox and Sollecito would go on to serve four years in an Italian prison before being acquitted through an appeal, and finally returned home to the US in 2011.
Their convictions were reinstated by a retrial in 2014, but they were overturned by Italy’s top appeals court in 2015.
Rudy Guede was found guilty of the murder after his fingerprints were found at the scene and went on to serve 13 years of a 16-year sentence.