Knox's ex-lover claims innocence at Italy murder trial

"I have been described as a ruthless killer but I am nothing of the sort," Sollecito told the court in Florence where he was appearing for the first time, pausing frequently during a rambling address to control his emotions.

"Amanda was my first love," he said, adding: "Amanda was carefree. She and I wanted to be isolated in our nest of desire in a little fairy tale."

"We were thinking of anything but the distorted, scornful vision of humanity of which we are being accused," he said.

Sollecito, who is 29, had been on an extended holiday in the Dominican Republic, which has no extradition agreement with Italy, and his attendance had been uncertain.

"He has come to show that he is not running away," Sollecito's lawyer Luca Maori said before the hearing.

Sollecito said he had been living in the Caribbean and the United States to "get away from the spotlight".

"I am the victim of a crazy persecution that for me has no logic and seems like an unimaginable nightmare," he said.

His lawyer Giulia Bongiorno said Sollecito could return to the United States and, whatever the verdict "his life will be lived outside of Italy".

"He cannot live normally in Italy because he is chased around by the media," she said, pointing to the dozens of journalists attending the hearing.

The results of new DNA testing on a kitchen knife found in Sollecito's house were also presented at the hearing.

Prosecutors allege it was one of the weapons used to kill Meredith Kercher in the home she shared with Knox, who was 19 at the time of the murder.

The tests found a trace of Knox's DNA between the blade and the handle of the knife but the result is seen as inconclusive in the trial, with the defence saying it clears the couple and prosecutors saying it implicates them.

"I think that this court has all the elements to take its decision. Another court has determined why that knife was in Knox's hands," said Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kercher family, who were not in court.

Sollecito's defence has already said it would be normal for the knife to have Knox's DNA since it was found in her boyfriend's kitchen drawer.

Knox has lived in the United States ever since an appeals court in the university town of Perugia where the gruesome murder took place acquitted her and Sollecito of the murder in 2011 -- after four years in prison.

The supreme court overturned that acquittal earlier this year, sending the case back to another appeals court for a retrial, which has so far focused on re-examining some of the DNA evidence in the case.

A third person, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, is serving a 16-year sentence in prison for the murder but prosecutors say the evidence shows that he could not have been the only one to have carried out the killing.

Kercher was found half-naked in a pool of blood on the morning of November 2, 2007 in the university town where she was on an education exchange.

Prosecutors believe that the murder may have been the result of a sexual assault on Kercher involving Knox, Sollecito and Guede.

All three deny involvement in the crime, although Guede has admitted he was in the house at the time of the killing.

The trial continues with hearings on November 25 and 26, then December 16 and 17 and finally on January 9 and 10.