Meredith Kercher Murder Accused Visits Grave By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter Raffaele Sollecito has paid a secret visit to the grave of murdered student Meredith Kercher, it has emerged. The 29-year-old computer studies graduate is currently back on trial accused of the brutal knife killing along with his former girlfriend Amanda Knox, 26. The news that he went to Miss Kercher's grave will come as a shock to her family, who have asked several times that Knox stay away from the final resting place - despite her making several pleas to visit. Details of Sollecito's secret trip to the grave emerged during an Italian TV programme to mark six years since the murder in Perugia and came just days before he is due to attend the retrial ordered by Italy's Supreme Court. Sollecito's father Francesco described his son's visit to the cemetery in Coulsdon, Surrey as a "private and spontaneous decision." Raffaele Sollecito is now living in the Caribbean "He went there with friends who he was visiting while staying in England," he said. They asked him if he would like to go and he said yes. It certainly wasn't a visit as if he was a tourist. He went there to say a prayer for someone who was killed in a brutal manner. Other than that I would not like to say anything else because it is a very private thing. According to the TV show Quarto Grado, Sollecito did not ask for permission from Miss Kercher's relatives and although he said a "silent prayer" for the British student, he did not leave any flowers. Francesco Maresca, representing the Kercher family, said: "I was only made aware of this visit through the media. Amanda Knox is now back in America I have not had chance to mention it to Meredith's family but I am sure they would echo what they said in their earlier statement, (that) they want her grave to be respected and visited just by family and friends. The Kercher family have never accepted Sollecito and Knox's insistence they had nothing to do with the murder. Miss Kercher, 20 was found semi-naked with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house she shared with Knox and two Italian women. In September, Knox stunned the Kercher family with a bizarre request, saying she hoped one day she could visit the final resting place of her friend. However, in a statement Miss Kercher's sister Stephanie made it clear the family will not concede to her wish. Rudy Guede is serving 18 years for Miss Kercher's murder Knox and her then-boyfriend Sollecito were arrested and charged five days after the murder and at their initial trial in 2009 were convicted and sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively. But two years later an appeal court overturned the original verdict and they were immediately freed with Knox flying back to her home in Seattle where she was given a rapturous welcome. Sollecito returned to his home in Bisceglie near Bari. However, it has since emerged that he has moved to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. But his father has insisted he will return later this week to appear at the trial in Florence where he is expected to make a formal statement to the court. Last week a fresh forensic report ordered by the court was leaked and it revealed that although Knox's DNA was on a knife believed to be the murder weapon crucially there was no trace of Miss Kercher or Sollecito on it. Drifter Rudy Guede, 26, was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting Miss Kercher in 2008 and sentenced to 30 years, but this was later reduced to 16 years and he could be released on parole by 2018.