Amanda Knox's former lover says they wanted to be left in a nest of desire Amanda Knox's ex wants life back Amanda Knox's co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito asks the judges to give him back a "real life" during a court session in Florence. PT2M1S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2x35b 620 349 November 7, 2013 - 2:36PM Raffaele Sollecito says he and Amanda Knox just wanted to be left in a nest of desire The former boyfriend of Amanda Knox delivered an impassioned speech to an Italian court yesterday (Wednesday), denying that the couple murdered the British student Meredith Kercher and saying that they had just wanted to be left alone in a "nest of desire." Raffaele Sollecito choked up towards the end of the 15-minute address, saying that he had been unjustly portrayed as "a ruthless assassin" and that his life had turned into a "nightmare" ever since he and Miss Knox were arrested after Miss Kercher's body was found in the cottage she shared with the American in Perugia, Umbria, in Nov 2007. In this picture taken with a mobile phone, Raffaele Sollecito, right, stands up with his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno. Sollecito faces a fresh appeals trial after his acquittal in 2011 was attacked as full of contradictions. In the last day of evidence in the appeals trial, he said he had been very "reserved" when he met Miss Knox at a classical musical contest in Perugia just 10 days before the murder, and that she was his first true love. "She was my first true love - I started rather late," Mr Sollecito said. Amanda was carefree. She and I wanted to be completely isolated in our nest of desire, to live out a little fairytale. The accusations levelled against them were "absurd," he said, during his first appearance at the third murder trial over Miss Kercher's death, which began in September. Amanda Knox at her appeal hearing in 2011 in Perugia where she and Raffaele Sollecito had their conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 overturned. "I have been described as a ruthless assassin but I am nothing of the sort," said Mr Sollecito, wearing khaki trousers and a brown pullover. The 29-year-old said the four years he spent in prison after being convicted of the murder and sexual assault of the Leeds University student was an experience that he would not wish "on anyone in the world." He said he had never been in trouble with the law before his arrest for the murder of Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey. A reproduction of an undated picture shows murdered British student Meredith Kercher. He said the only fault of which he and Miss Knox could be accused was failing to comprehend the seriousness of the situation before and after they were arrested six years ago. "I didn't take things seriously enough at the start," said the computer studies graduate, who flew back to Italy for the hearing from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, where he was on holiday for several weeks at the invitation of "a very kind friend." Prosecutors allege that Mr Sollecito and Miss Knox, together with Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer in Perugia, subjected Miss Kercher to a frenzied knife assault in her bedroom on the night of Nov 1, 2007, during a group sex game that spun out of control. But Mr Sollecito told the court that he did not even know Guede, who is serving 16 years in jail after being convicted of the crime in a separate, fast-track trial, and that he barely knew Miss Kercher. Miss Knox was not in court - she has elected to remain in her home town of Seattle, as is her right under Italian law. The trial was adjourned until Nov 25.