Attorney: Knox naive like movie's 'Amelie'

PERUGIA, Italy, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- An Italian defense attorney says accused killer Amanda Knox is not a diabolical schemer but merely a naive girl like one from a romantic movie.

Attorney Giulia Bongiorno, who is representing Knox's one-time boyfriend and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, told jurors in Perugia, Italy, Monday prosecutors have painted a twisted and inaccurate picture of the 22-year-old American college student, accused of killing roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007, SeattlePI.com reported.

Bongiorno, in a blistering critique of the prosecution's case in the hotly debated trial, compared Knox to the naive character played by actress Audrey Tautou in the French film "Amelie," which Knox and Sollecito contend they were watching together the night Kercher was slain.

"There is a more simple truth to Amanda," the Web site quoted Bongiorno as saying. "She looks at the world with eyes of Amelie: A naive, slightly extravagant, spontaneous young girl who is 60 percent imagination and 40 percent reality."

Prosecutors say Knox and Sallecito killed British exchange student Kercher when she refused to participate with them in a drug-fueled sex game.

Knox's father, Curt Knox, told SeattlePI.com his family welcomed Bongiorno's descriptions "versus the character assassination she has experienced in the last two years."