Expert: Bloody footprint matches Knox's ex-beau

ROME (AP) - A footprint expert called by the prosecution testified Saturday that a bloody footprint on a bathroom rug matched Seattle student Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend, who is accused in the 2007 slaying of a British university student.

Lorenzo Rinaldi, who directs the identification section of Perugia's crime scene squad, told the court that the footprint on the bathroom rug appears to belong to Raffaele Sollecito, the ANSA news agency and Italian TV news reports said.

Murder suspect Amanda Knox listens during a hearing in the Meredith Kercher murder trial Saturday.

Rinaldi was also further quoted as saying a second footprint, in a corridor, was also attributed to Sollecito.

Sollecito, 24, and Knox, 21, are being tried for the slaying of Meredith Kercher, Knox's roommate.

Kercher's body was found, with stab wounds to the neck, in the victim's bedroom.

Both Sollecito and Knox deny all wrongdoing.

Sollecito, in a statement to the court, denied that the footprints were his, ANSA reported.

"Those prints of bare feet are absolutely not mine," ANSA quoted the Italian as saying.

"My consultants (experts) will testify and explain why" they contend they are not his prints, Sollecito told the court.

In Italy, defendants can ask the court to make declarations even if they aren't on the witness stand.

ANSA also reported that Rinaldi testified that two footprints found elsewhere in the rented house - in a corridor and in a bedroom - matched Knox.

In a separate trial, an Ivory Coast national, Rudy Hermann Guede, was convicted of the slaying.

Prosecutors allege Kercher was stabbed during what began as a sex game.

The trial began in January for Knox and Sollecito, who risk receiving Italy's stiffest punishment, life imprisonment, if convicted of murder. They are also accused of sexual violence.