Amanda Knox ‘Feared Sexual Abuse’ in Italian Prison, Reveals One Guard ‘Tried to Kiss’ Her

The Italian justice system has done wrong by Amanda Knox in more than one way, but now she’s alleging that her situation was even more dire than it seemed. After she was convicted of the murder of her study-abroad roommate, Meredith Kercher, Knox was sentenced to spend time in an Italian prison. But in addition to being unjustly jailed and smeared in the Italian press, she claims she was also the victim of another crime: sexual harassment. In an episode of her podcast, The Truth About True Crime with Amanda Knox, she opened up about what it was like being behind bars in a foreign country.

“There were moments when I was locked away that I feared sexual abuse,” the 31-year-old shared. “A guard once cornered me in the shower and tried to kiss me.” The vice warden also targeted her, she claimed, alleging that he would interrogate her “each night” during the first few weeks she was in prison. “He would probe me about my sex life and ask if I would f–k him. … I pretended not to understand his Italian.” Though this behavior is clearly harassment and an even attempted assault, she says it never escalated beyond that, clarifying that she was never actually violated. “I made it through those years unscathed in that regard,” she continued.

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But in other regards, she wasn’t so lucky. In January 2019, the European Human Rights Court ruled that Knox was owed $20,000 in damages, legal fees, and to cover other expenses. In addition to being tried for murder, Italy had also convicted Knox of slander after she gave a false testimony during an interrogation that lasted “53 hours over five days, without a lawyer, in a language [she] understood maybe as well as a ten-year-old.” At the time, she wrote, “Today, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that my slander conviction was unjust. I am grateful for their wisdom in acknowledging the reality of false confessions, and the need to reform police interrogation methods.”

Now that she’s free, in the United States, hosting her own podcast and happily engaged, it seems she’s finally ready to speak out freely about all of the injustices that she faced. After finally being cleared of all crimes, Amanda Knox is speaking out as a victim — but even more so, as a survivor.