Amanda Knox screamed with delight today as she was sensationally cleared of murdering her former room-mate Meredith Kercher, seven years after the British student was found dead in Italy.
Joyous shouting was heard from Knox's back garden in Seattle as news came through that Italy's highest court had overturned the murder conviction against her and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.
The decision by the Supreme Court of Cassation is the final ruling in the case and definitively ends the gruelling legal battle waged by Knox and her co-defendant Sollecito.
Following the verdict, Ms Knox released a statement saying she is 'tremendously relieved and grateful' and knowing she was innocent gave her 'strength in the darkest times of this ordeal'.
She added: ‘Throughout this ordeal, I have received invaluable support from family, friends, and strangers. To them, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your kindness has sustained me.’
And her father was seen hugging and kissing his wife Cassandra while her step-sisters Ashley and Delaney happily waved to photographers.
Those three women left the house and spoke openly about their excitment at the acquittal, saying: 'We're happy campers, we're happy happy! Its about time - we knew all along.'

Their joy contrasts the shock felt by the family of deceased student Meredith Kercher whose mother Arline said: 'I am a bit surprised, and very shocked if I'm honest.
I don't know what to say. They have been convicted twice so it's a bit odd that it should change now.'
She added that she could not see how evidence previously accepted could now be discredited.
Various friends and family members gathered in the back garden amid an atmosphere of relief and jubilation and people could be heard yelling: 'Freedom! Freedom!'
Earlier this afternoon, two men arrived at Knox's home with what looked like a case of beer and shortly afterwards her step-sister Ashley Knox, sister Deanna and stepmother Cassandra turned up with bags of food and looked positive and happy as they awaited the court in Rome's verdict.
'Finished!' her lawyer Carlo Vedova yelled in Rome after the decision was read out, adding: 'It couldn't be better than this.'

And her spokesman David Marriott admitted the verdict was unexpected, adding: 'I personally feel overjoyed that the truth has won out, that she is innocent.'
Both Knox, who was awaiting the verdict in her home town of Seattle, and Sollecito have long maintained their innocence.
Knox and Sollecito were originally convicted of murder and sexual assault in December 2009 and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in jail respectively.
But after they had already served four years in prison, a court in Perugia threw out the couple's coviction and declared them innocent.
Knox returned to the US before another U-turn in the sensational case in January last year when a court in Florence reinstated the original 2009 conviction and increased Knox's sentence to 28-and-a-half years.
Now Italy's highest court in Rome has overturned last year's convictions and declined to order another trial.