Official: Coed slain after 'softening up'

PERUGIA, Italy, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- British student Meredith Kercher was slain after attempts to "soften her up" for a sex game failed, an Italian prosecutor says.

New details alleged by Italian authorities about Kercher's final moments indicate her exchange student roommate, American Amanda Knox, 21, sent Rudy Geude, also 21, to initiate her into planned "erotic game," but Kercher energetically refused him, leading to her slaying, The Sunday Times of London reported.

Quoting Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini in a soon-to-be-published book, the newspaper said police accuse Knox; her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24; and Geude of stabbing Kercher in the neck with a kitchen knife after becoming enraged by her refusal to let Geude "soften her up" for the sex game.

Knox, of Seattle, and Sollecito went on trial Friday, accused of sexually abusing and murdering Kercher, 21, in Perugia, Italy. They both say they are innocent, while Guede has already been jailed for 30 years for his part in the killing.

Mignini reportedly says Kercher had a defensive knife wound on her hand, sustained as she tried to free herself and push away the knife allegedly held by Knox.