Knox's mother: Amanda receives many letters of support

. . .  since the trial ended there has been growing uncertainty over whether the DNA evidence in the trial was strong enough to convict them - although Miss Kercher's family believes it was.

Mrs Mellas, Knox's mother, spoke after visiting her daughter at Perugia's Capanne jail yesterday.

"Amanda is hanging in there and is in fighting spirits," she said. "She is getting tremendous comfort from the huge amount of letters she is getting from people who say she is innocent and to carry on fighting. She is snowed under from all the letters and that is helping her to carry on.

"There are hundreds and hundreds from all over the world and she told me that only one letter - which was from Britain - was negative towards her. That person said, 'Enjoy your next 26 years of pasta.'"

Mrs Mellas comments came after a survey by Angus Reid showed that 49 per cent of Britons thought Knox had received a fair trial in Italy compared to just 25 per cent of Americans.

Her daughter's first questions during a visit were always to ask how her family was, and what was happening in the world, Mrs Mellas said. "She was very surprised when I told her all about Tiger Woods and all the women who he is supposed to have slept with - she couldn't believe it.

"I told her that she was making as many headlines as he was - which summed up for all of us the global impact of what has happened to her."

Mrs Mellas added that letters of support had come in from Italy, the United States, France, Germany and Ireland and that some had arrived simply with the words "Amanda Knox, Italy" written on the envelope.

Knox is continuing with her studies in prison and has also applied to work in the prison laundry but has not yet found out if she has been successful, her mother added. She shares a cell with another American, known only as Laura, from New Orleans, who is serving four years for drug offences.

The other prisoners are supportive of her, Mrs Mellas said. "The other day at Mass one of the women prisoners stood up and said to the priest 'Let's pray for Amanda she needs our support.' They provide her with strength and encouragement because she has been very scared at times but she has been just amazing, I don't know how she manages."

Knox is planning to appeal ane her mother said: "The lawyers have been doing an excellent job and we have also had support from the American Embassy in Rome. Amanda is really grateful for this support. When the judge releases his reasons for sentencing Amanda then our lawyers will look at it and we will also see if there is the possibility of getting her out on bail until the appeal."

In another development the third convicted murderer of Miss Kercher, Rudy Guede, who was jailed for 30 years in October 2008, insisted Knox and Sollecito were the killers.

In a letter to his lawyer Nicodemo Gentile, Guede wrote: "They were rightly tried for the murder of a wonderful girl. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are assassins. During their trial I heard nothing but slander against me... as well as insults, blasphemy and insinuation.

"Instead of admitting their guilt and the horror of what they did they just try and blame others, spreading lies about them. Now I have had enough of these lies, I have had two years of this and now enough."

Guede, 22, from the Ivory Coast, signed off his letter by asking his lawyer to do all that he could to prove his "innocence."

Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds University European Studies degree and had only been in Italy for two months before she as murdered in November 2007.