The editors of some of the UK’s biggest online news sites – the Daily Mail, the Guardian and The Sun – have been left red-faced after jumping the gun and publishing that Amanda Knox had lost her appeal.
Knox, now back in the US, was convicted of murdering British roommate Meredith Kercher back in 2009. But she won her appeal on Monday and was released from prison immediately. She was found guilty of slander for her previous testimony, and ordered to pay court fees, but she was cleared of the murder.
Under the headline: “Guilty: Amanda Knox collapses in tears as appeal against murder conviction is rejected”, Mail Online went on to detail the return journey of Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito to separate prisons where they would be put on suicide watch. The story also quotes “delighted” prosecutors who said “justice has been done”.
The Sun, meanwhile, ran a similar story under the headline: “Amanda Knox guilty of killing Meredith Kercher”, saying that, “the 24-year-old American will now be returned to jail in Perugia, Italy”.
The URL for both stories now leads to an error message that reads, “The page you have requested does not exist or is no longer available.”
Even the Guardian was caught out, initially reporting in its live blog that Knox had lost her appeal. It deleted the entry shortly afterwards.
