Amanda Knox defends Fringe comedy show after claims it will 'trivialise violence'

Amanda Knox, who was convicted and later acquitted of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007, has defended her solo comedy show following calls for it to be cancelled.

The sold-out show called Cartwheel, which Knox will perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, discusses motherhood and how she will explain the case to her daughter.

Knox told the BBC she is not the first person to use comedy to talk about traumatic events and said her material focuses on "how the world is unsafe and unfair towards women".

But Stephanie Kercher, the victim's sister, said she is concerned it will "normalise and trivialise" violence against women, and Meredith, in particular.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Stephanie Kercher, said: "What I would say [to Knox] is to think about the family here, think about her friends and to turn the tables if it was your sister that this had happened to, because I know you have a sister as well."

Responding to the comments, Knox said: "The interesting irony of that is that my daughter is a huge motivation for me doing this show.

"It's about how the world is unsafe and unfair towards women and what it means to raise a daughter in that world, knowing how bad it can be.

"If they [Kercher's family] saw my show, they would recognise that."

A petition against the show, set up by a friend of Meredith, has been signed by nearly 5,000 people.

It states the show disrespects her memory and risks making light of such a harrowing event.

Tony Lankester, director of the Fringe Society, said the festival is no stranger to controversy and it is a platform for free speech.

"It's the nature of an open access platform," he told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast.

"When you open up your stages and invite people in to tell their stories without censorship, any curation and without trying to control the content ahead of time, you're inevitably going to end up staging things that cause discomfort and push the boundaries."

Lankester added the line in terms of what is acceptable is the law, which he claimed is clear.

"If anyone wants to use the Fringe to break the law, to incite violence or to embark on hate speech, that is our red line and we would intervene," he said.

"For us, the baseline principle is it is a platform for free speech and some people may not regard it as being in good taste but we cannot apply that criteria because who decides that?"

He said the decision as to whether the comedy show goes ahead lies with the venue and Knox, herself.

Since Meredith Kercher's death, Knox has written two books about her imprisonment and served as an executive producer on the biographical drama The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.

Now 39, she is married with two children and lives in Washington state.

Knox, from Seattle, and Kercher, from Surrey, were both exchange students sharing a house in the university town of Perugia.

Alongside her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, Knox was arrested on suspicion of murdering Kercher, 21, who was found dead in their house.

Her throat had been cut and she had been sexually assaulted.

Knox was found guilty and spent four years in an Italian prison before she and Sollecito were acquitted through an appeal.

She returned home to the US in 2011.

A retrial in 2014 reinstated Knox and Sollecito's convictions but Italy's top appeals court finally overturned them in 2015.

Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede served 13 years of a 16-year sentence for Kercher's murder after his fingerprints were found at the scene.

The court ruled he did not act alone but after Knox and Sollecito were acquitted, no other accomplices were convicted.