​Meredith Kercher killer Rudy Guede is charged with beating up his ex-girlfriend six months after leaving prison: Raffaele Sollecito - acquitted over the Brit's death - says 'it seems he has not changed'

Meredith Kercher's killer had been charged with beating up his ex-girlfriend - six months after he was released from an Italian prison for murdering the British university student.

Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 36, was released from prison in June after serving 13 years for the grisly murder and sexual assault of 21-year-old Kercher in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007.

Kercher was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in the bedroom of her house in the hilltop town - just weeks after arriving for a year abroad with her Leeds University course. 

Guede was originally sentenced to 30 years for her murder, but this was later reduced to 18 years and with good behaviour he was freed on parole in 2021 and got a job in a local library in Viterbo where he now lives.

In June he was discharged from his sentence, but it has now emerged he has been charged with assaulting his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend.

Pending his trial, a local prosecutor has authorised him to wear an electronic tag and not go within 500 metres of his partner. Prosecutors had requested the measure of house arrest.

Raffaele Sollecito, who was acquitted over the Brit's murder along with his then-girlfriend Amanda Knox, said 'it seems Guede has not changed' after he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend.

'I don't follow Guede's life, but certainly in light of what happened today it seems to me that he hasn't changed,' Sollecito told La Stampa. 

'What he was before entering prison, what we read in the documents, is sadly reconfirmed and equally sad. We see that he has not repented,' Sollecito added.

Guede was convicted in 2008 for the murder that also saw Kercher's American flatmate, Amanda Knox, jailed but then sensationally acquitted alongside her Italian boyfriend at the time, Sollecito. 

Guede was found guilty after his DNA was discovered on Kercher's body despite his claims that he was in the bathroom listening to music when she was killed. 

He was freed on parole in 2021 following good behaviour in prison and has been living in the town of Viterbo where he works as a researcher and librarian at the Centre for Crime, Judicial and Sociological studies. 

He has also been studying for a Master's in Historical Sciences at Rome Tre university. 

Following his release from prison, Guede said: 'The sentence I had to serve in the name of the law has ended. Now I am left marked by the judgement of strangers, by the slanted glances as I pass.'

But Guede has now been charged with assaulting his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend - six months after he was officially released from jail over Kercher's murder. 

Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was killed just two months after moving to Italy for a study abroad programme at Perugia's prestigious university.

Her body was found in her bedroom, partially undressed, with 47 stab wounds. 

Guede's fingerprints were found at the scene along with a palm print in blood belonging to him.

He admitted to having been at the apartment but has always denied killing or sexually assaulting Kercher.

He said he had gone into a 'state of shock' after finding her dead after he returned from the bathroom.

Following the murder, Guede fled by train to Germany where he was arrested days later. 

Guede has since told Kercher's parents in a letter that his hands were stained with her blood because he was trying to save the British student.

'If my hands are stained with blood it is because I tried to save Meredith,' Guede wrote in the letter, according to La Repubblica. 

'Fear took over and I ran away like a coward leaving Mez perhaps still alive. I will never stop regretting this.'  

Guede was charged with her murder and sexual assault and handed down a 30-year sentence, which was later cut to 16 years by an appeals court.

Meanwhile, Knox and Sollecito both spent four years in prison after their convictions over Kercher's murder. Knox was also convicted of defamation for wrongly accusing Patrick Lumumba, a bar owner, of the murder.

Lumumba spent two weeks in jail, only being released when someone came forward with an alibi.

Knox was the one to first call the police after she discovered Kercher's bedroom door locked and found blood in the bathroom, but after law enforcement officials noticed her acting odd, she became a suspect.

After an immense investigation and trial, Amanda, who was 20 years old at the time, as well as her boyfriend Raffaele, were convicted for the crime in 2009 - and she was sentenced to 26 years in prison for faking a break-in, defamation, sexual violence, and murder. 

Knox and Sollecito were acquitted in 2011 after evidence used against the pair was found to be flawed. 

Knox immediately returned to the United States protesting her innocence, but in January 2014, the Italian courts overturned that acquittal and reinstated the guilty verdict. 

The appeals court ruled that the injuries inflicted on Kercher's body could not have been inflicted by Guede alone.

However in 2015, Italy's highest court overturned the decision in a final ruling, saying Knox and Sollecito's convictions were the result of 'stunning flaws' in the investigation.

Guede remains the only person serving time in prison for the British student's brutal murder.