'Foxy Knoxy is innocent, my brother killed Meredith': Mafia supergrass comes forward as sensational new witness

A Mafia supergrass claims his brother is the real killer of student Meredith Kercher and that Amanda Knox, pictured in court last week, is innocent.

Luciano Aviello, 41, has made a full statement to Knox's legal team and it will be used as part of their appeal against her conviction later this year.
In his statement Aviello, who is a convicted mobster serving 17 years for Mafia association, said the murderer was his brother Antonio and he had hidden the murder weapon and keys to the house where Miss Kercher was killed.

The 21-year-old was found semi-naked with her throat cut in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox, 22, in the Italian hilltop town of Perugia in 2007.
Last year Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, were convicted of the brutal sex murder and sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively.
But the case has taken a bizarre twist with the sensational new evidence from Aviello who even wrote to the court three times during last year's trial but was never questioned.
Knox's lawyers Carlo Dalla Vedova and Luciano Ghirga visited Aviello in Ivrea prison near Turin last month and videotaped his statement and included it in their appeal request.
In his statement he insisted that Knox, Sollecito and a third man, Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, who was also convicted of the murder, were all innocent.

Raffaele Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years in jail for his role in the killing.

Meredith Kercher, 21, was found dead just two months after arriving in Italy

Aviello said: 'The real killer is my brother Antonio. The others are innocent.
'I know because my brother confessed to me that he had killed Meredith and he asked me to hide a blood stained knife and set of keys.
'I had everything under a little wall behind my house and covered it with soil and stones. I am happy to stand up in court and confirm all this and wrote to the court several times to tell them but was never questioned.'
Aviello, who is from Naples, the heartland of the local Mafia known as the Camorra, said: 'At the time I was living in Perugia and my brother was staying with me.
'When he came to my house he had a bloodstained jacket on and was carrying a flick knife. He said he had broken into a house and killed a girl and then he had run away.'
Today Mr Dalla Vedova said: 'What Aviello has to say is very important and his statement is part of our appeal. We are asking that he be called and give evidence.
'What he has to say is very significant because the keys to the house were never found and this aspect should at least be investigated and verified.

Knox was more relaxed during her murder trial, prone to smiling at inappropriate times, before being convicted of killing Miss Kercher
Mr Dalla Vedova added: 'Amanda is not doing very well at all. Her soul is troubled and she is very worried that will be spending a long time in prison for something that she did not do.'
No date has been set yet for the appeal but it is expected to be heard in the autumn.
Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her university degree and had only been in Italy for two months before she was murdered.
Antonio Aviello could not be reached for comment.