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Exclusive: Amanda Knox Statement

In an exclusive audio tape obtained by CBS News' 48 Hours Mystery, University of Washington student Amanda Knox describes to an Italian judge what happened the night she was brought in for questioning in the November 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy.

Knox's statement includes her claim that physical abuse during the 14-hour interrogation led to her false confession.

The statement to the court was made Oct. 18, 2008, before Judge Paulo Micheli during the trial of Rudy Guede. The Ivory Coast man was convicted of Kercher's murder on Oct 28, 2008, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Listen to Amanda's full statement

Amanda Knox:
I want to - reiterate my position, for all of this case, and also to clarify - the confusion that I - have brought to this case.

OK. I want to clarify what it is that happened to me in - the- in the Questore the day that - the day that I made declarations that didn't make sense, that changed.

After the discovery of Meredith, I had spent days in - cooperating with the police, to try to just give as much information as I could.

The day of the fifth, I wasn't called to the Questore. Raffaele was called, but I decided to go with him, to keep him company, but also because I was scared to be alone.

When I was there, I had just planned to wait, but the police came into their waiting room and wanted to talk to me more about what I knew, people that I knew who had come to my house. I gave them phone numbers and -

After that, they moved me into another room and started asking me the same questions, what I had done that night, asking me - for times, exact time periods, exactly what I did. And was - it was difficult for me because it was in the middle of the night that I - we had been called. I was very tired. And I was also quite stressed out. And I - so I -

They kept asking me the same questions, time periods - exactly sequences of actions and I did my best, to give the same information over and over and over again.

At a certain point - excuse me. At a certain point, the - they began - the police began to be more aggressive with me.

They called me a liar and -

They told me that I was - of all the things that I had kept saying, over and over again, they said that I was lying. They said that -

They threatened that I was going to go in prison for 30 years because I was hiding something. But I - but I felt - I felt completely stressed out, blocked, because I wasn't lying. I didn't know what I - I didn't know what to do.

Then they started pushing on me the idea that I must have seen something, and forgotten about it. They said that I was traumatized.

I didn't understand. I became really confused. I tried to - re-express, re-explain what I had done - the fact that I didn't have to go to work. At that point, they - I gave them my phone so they could see that I didn't have to - I received - OK - OK -

See - because I received an SMS, and for that reason, they kept repeating to me that I was lying about - SMS. I was confused.

So, what ended up happening was the fact that I had been pressured so much, and I was - I was hit in the back of the head by one of the police officers and -

Who said she was trying to make me - help me remember the truth.

I was terrified, because I didn't know - I - I didn't know what to do anymore.

And so what ended up happening was they said they - they went - take me to jail, and I'm - and because of all this SMS, because - because of all this confusion, they kept saying, "You sent this thing to Patrick. We know that you left the house. We know." I just said his name. It wasn't because I was trying to say anything. I just said it because they were…

After that - at a certain point, I asked if I should have had a lawyer. And they said that it would have been worse for me.

So they asked me to make declarations about what I remembered, but I told that I didn't remember anything like this.

Because I was confused. What I remembered was different from what they were asking me to say.

They asked me for details, and I didn't have details to give them, so they just asked me questions that I just responded as -

From - I was stressed, so what I - what, in that moment that I was trying to think of something else - my memories of just random events, of seeing Patrick, for instance, one night, or…

I wrote these memorials that everyone's putting so much pressure on - only because I wanted to express the fact that I was confused. I felt like no one was listening to me anymore, and so I wrote these to express the fact that I didn't - I - I didn't - I wasn't for sure about anything anymore.

I want to stress the fact that I'm innocent. Meredith was my friend, and I could never have hurt her. I'm not the person that the prosecutor says I am.

And that's all I want to say. Thank you.

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