Amanda Knox memoir details prison abuse; U.K. publication delayed
Details are leaking out of Amanda Knox’s “tell-all” memoir, “Waiting to be Heard,” which is scheduled to be published in the U.S. on April 30. But its release is now being indefinitely postponed in the U.K.
The publication has been pulled due to fears it may run into trouble with Britain’s strict libel laws, according to the Guardian. A spokesperson said: “Due to our legal system, and relying upon advice from our counsel, HarperCollins UK will not publish a British edition of Waiting to Be Heard, by Amanda Knox, at this time.”
Knox is an American woman who served four years in an Italian jail for the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, while she was an exchange student in Perugia. She was freed on appeal in 2011, and has since returned home to Seattle. A ruling in late March by the Italian high court overturned her acquittal for the murder of her roommate and sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration.
Knox has already been convicted of libel by her former boss, bar owner Patrick Lumumba, whom she said killed Kercher.
And ABC News reported Monday morning that Knox’s memoir will reveal details about sexual harassment she reportedly says she endured from a prison guard, Raffaele Argiro, who has since been suspended over accusations of sexual assault.
He “accompanied me to almost all my medical visits,” the Daily News reports that Knox writes, “and at night he called me up to the third-floor in an empty office for a ‘chitchat.’”
Knox is said to expand on letters she wrote to friends (which have since ended up in the tabloid press) in which she said that Argiro was fixated on the idea of sex, grilling her about previous partners and experiences. Knox reportedly was also solicited for sex by other prisoners, including a female inmate who tried to initiate an affair.
Knox’s book is also said to discuss her “confession,” which played a major role in the murder trial, that she was in the house when Kercher’s killing took place. Knox will reportedly publish a letter she wrote the day after the confession claiming that it was made under stress and duress, and describe what she believes took place the night Kercher was killed.
Knox, who is 25, will give her first television interview to Diane Sawyer in an ABC special on the day of the book’s release.
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