Knox leaves Italy after murder acquittal

ROME, (Reuters) – American student Amanda Knox left  Italy for home today after an appeals court acquitted her  of murdering British student Meredith Kercher and freed her from  four years in jail.
Knox, from Seattle, was freed by a court in the Umbrian hill  town of Perugia on Monday night after a sensational appeal trial  that gripped public attention on both sides of the Atlantic.
Airport officials said she and her family left Italy for  London, where they were due to board a connecting flight to  their hometown.
The court also freed Knox’s former boyfriend, Italian  computer student Raffaele Sollecito. Both were convicted in 2009  of murdering 21-year-old Kercher during what prosecutors said  was a drug-fuelled sexual assault in the university city.