Amanda Knox Slips Out of Seclusion for Brief Shopping Trip


Amanda Knox, who has been in seclusion since her release from an Italian prison, is finally venturing out.

Her return to the public was no more than a trip to a store for toothpaste and a chocolate bar, but it was a deliciously simple act that had been denied her during her four years in an Italian prison.

Ironically, one of her last acts in prison was the inmate ritual of snapping her toothbrush and carrying it outside the walls of Capanne prison before throwing it away.

Knox's foray into the public comes as more details of her prison ordeal emerge, specifically how she was sexually harassed.

Knox's younger sister Deanna told ABC News that she saw the remnants of the harassment firsthand while visiting her sister in prison.

"There was something right in front of me and so I put my arm over it," Deanna Knox said.

Deanna Knox said she covered up scribbled words that read "Amanda is a whore."

On one occasion, a male guard reportedly entered Knox's cell alone, despite a policy against it, and made sexual remarks, ABC News has confirmed. On another occasion, a high ranking prison official allegedly ordered Knox into his office at night and wanted to talk about sex.

Amanda Knox Was Sexually Harassed in Prison

"I think the Italian courts...the first time around practically made sure that Amanda was going to be harassed in prison since they made her sex life so much of a focus of the first trial, " said Vanity Fair's Judy Bachrach who has covered the case extensively.

Shortly after her arrest, prison officials tricked Knox, falsely telling her that her medical check-up revealed that she was HIV positive and asked her for a list of lovers for health reasons. The list that a distraught Knox provided to officials was soon leaked and became headlines in tabloid newspapers.

"Please oh please," she wrote in her prison diary at the time. "Let it not be true. I don't want to die."

ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams said that Knox could have the basis for a lawsuit but filing one would require a return to Italy.

Knox, 24, was released from prison earlier this month when she and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, successfully appealed their murder conviction. They had been accused of murdering Knox's British roommate Meredith Kercher in a cottage the two women shared in Perugia, Italy.

Sollecito has not spoken publicly since his release but his father told the press that his son is getting used to being at home.

"It's as if he has been reborn and he is getting used to the simple things in life again, things that he has not been able to do for four years and this will take some time," said Francesco Sollecito.

Meanwhile, a juror who overturned Knox's conviction told Italy's state-run RAI television that he has no doubt that Knox and Sollecito are innocent.

"I saw the faces of these two kids, and they couldn't bluff. They didn't bluff. My point of view is that these kids weren't guilty. They weren't there," said Mauro Chialli.

2,485 comments

  • mark 5 hours ago
    It doesn't surprise me to hear what happened to her in prison because the same thing happens in US prisons but never gets the headlines
  • Doug 6 hours ago
    News people. Leave her alone.
  • Shad Peck 6 hours ago
    let just leave her be gees american media stalk much?
  • hello 4 hours ago
    They need to lock up the male guards in the same jail that they work
  • Jenny 30 minutes ago
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    It's nice to see stories about good people doing nice things. Way to go Coach! I wish more news was this kind instead of stupid "celebrity" bullpoop and gloom-and-doom. Thanks for giving us a good read!50092055028
  • MF L 7 hours ago
    Wow! Amada Knox slipped out for a brief shopping trip - and ABC News was there to get pictures! Saving democracy by informing the public of one pointless story after another. Way to go, ABC!
  • Alwa 7 hours ago
    This is what we get with commercial media - it all eventually becomes like a tabloid. There are more mindless people who want dirt and gossip than there are thoughtful people who want real news and analysis. The news is just another show who's main duty is to deliver as many viewers to it's sponsors as it can (or to increase its paying customers in the case of subscriptions). We need to take the profit motive out of the news and it will become news again instead of entertainment for the mindless masses.
  • Prince 7 hours ago
    I bought toilet paper yesterday. The 12 pack was on sale.
  • Moe 7 hours ago
    Effing shame on you "journalists" for writing sometrhing like this . . . wanna come over here and cover my neighbor's cat's funeral!!!!!!
  • Steffanie 7 hours ago
    The family asked to be left alone. Stay away let her adjust to life again, we don't care if she went to buy toothpaste.No one reports in the news when I go to the store, so I am sure it isn't news.
  • ex-ht-usn 2 hours ago
    As a retired Navy man,I think the Media should find stories in Iraq or Afganistan to report about.Our troops would want the world to know how the war is going.....How about showing some live firefights,instead of Amanda shopping...
  • BmB 2 hours ago
    What kind of toothpaste was it? Colgate, Crest? This is big news!
  • Edward 5 hours ago
    Lying to a suspect or prisoer is also allowed in this Country. Courts have long held that Police can lie to suspects but suspects who lie to Police are charged with a vfiolation.
  • Philippians 4 8 hours ago
    Media, let it go and move on. This kinda stuff keeps the Nancy Graces of the world around. Let her be.
  • JD 5 hours ago
    Enough already.
  • deborah k 2 hours ago
    OMG! Prison officials, court officials, & cops LYING??!! Come on people! This is NOTHING new! Believe me! I had a cop lie under oath on the stand in a personal matter in the past, and I've seen plenty of other instances where they do and say whatever they want and get away with it. It really can make a person bitter against authority.
  • ron about an hour ago
    sure is amazing how many people ask that amanda knox be left alone after being found innocent and released from prison . now...if only those same people would feel the same way about innocent american inmates realeased from american prisions.
  • Phil 5 hours ago
    You people blame the media but if everyone stopped buying and watching what they put out they wouldnt have a job so who is to blame? The guy who takes the photo or the people who look at it.
  • marisa 6 hours ago
    Is this the best that ABC can come up with, showing Amanda Knox going to the store. Whoo Hoo, not. Who care why don't you do a story on something that actually matters.
  • Windy 3 hours ago
    Please stop it. I don't care about Amanda Knox.
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