Rudy Hermann Guede told investigators yesterday that he saw Raffaele Sollecito and heard the voice of Amanda Knox at the house that night, according to the Italian news agency Ansa.

American Knox, 20, her Italian boyfriend Sollecito, 23, and Ivorian Guede, 21, are all being held on suspicion of sexually assaulting and murdering the 21-year-old from Coulsdon, Surrey.

The student was found dead at her home in Perugia on the night of November 1. She was discovered with her throat slit and police said there was evidence of a violent sexual encounter.

Guede, who was extradited back to Italy after being arrested in Germany when caught travelling on a tram without a ticket, has admitted being in her room the night she died, but, as with the other two, denies murder.

Ansa said that Guede was much more forthcoming in his three hour interview with the lead investigator in the case, Giuliano Mignini, yesterday, than he was when questioned by the authorities in December.

His decision to speak out was as a result of the attitude of the defenders of the two other suspects, who had more or less explicitly accused Guede of being behind the killing, the agency reported.