Amanda Knox broke down in tears at a criminal justice festival in Italy as she revealed she "fears more charges" over the death of British student Meredith Kercher.
The American former exchange student has returned to Italy for the first time since 2015 when she was cleared of killing her British roommate in Perugia in 2007.
Speaking in Italian at a panel discussion in Modena titled Trial By Media on Saturday, Ms Knox said worries that she will face further accusations over her role in the student's death, despite her proven innocence.
She also accused the media of depicting her as guilty over the murder and portraying her as "cunning, psychopath, drugged, whore, guilty".
She broke down in tears as she said the media had invented a "false and baseless story, which fuelled people's fantasies".
“I'm afraid today, now, I'm afraid of being harassed, mocked, stuck and I'm afraid that new accusations will be addressed to me just because I come here to say my version of the facts. But above all, I fear I will lack the courage,” she said.
“I know that despite my acquittal issued by the Court of Cassation, I remain a controversial figure in the presence of public opinion, above all and especially here in Italy."
“A lot of people think I'm crazy to come here. I was told that I was not safe, that I will be attacked in the streets, that I will be falsely accused and sent back to prison and that even if I return to Seattle, it will have been all in vain, it will not have been useful to anything.”
Ms Knox spent four years in an Italian prison over the killing of Ms Kercher. She and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito were later cleared.
She has since released a memoir, been the subject of a Netflix documentary and becoming a public advocate for wrongfully imprisoned inmates.
Ms Kercher’s family’s lawyer described Ms Knox’s invitation to the festival as “inappropriate.”
Francesco Maresca told the Guardian: 'All these insistences and appearances are only ever done to keep the attention on herself.
'The murder is a tragic memory for the Kercher family, they lost their daughter and sister in such a terrible way. It's also an injustice for them as they still don't know the full truth.”
Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast-born drifter and small-time drug dealer, was eventually convicted of Ms Kercher’s murder and is serving a 16-year sentence in an Italian prison.
