Amanda Knox takes job at local newspaper

Amanda Knox, who was jailed for murdering her roommate while studying in Italy, has taken up a job as a journalist at her local newspaper in the US.

Knox, 27, has taken up a position as a freelance writer at the West Seattle Herald nine months after she was convicted in absentia of the 2007 stabbing murder of student Meredith Kercher.

The paper's editor Patrick Robinson said he wanted to give Knox "the opportunity of a normal life".

"We simply asked her as we would ask anyone of that age and stage, if they would be interested in writing for us as a qualified writer of that scale and this level of journalism."

Knox has been reporting on the local theatre scene and writing human interest stories.

Mr Robinson said she was "very capable" and a "highly qualified writer".

"She’s certainly been through a lot and been very easy to work with and very interested and eager in doing stories," he said.

Knox was arrested in 2007 after her roommate was found dead with her throat slit.

Knox and her then-boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty of murder in 2009.

Prosecutors were accused of bungling the case and the pair were cleared on appeal in 2011 and Knox returned to the US.

In January this year Knox was re-trialled in absentia, found guilty and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

She will seek to appeal to the Italy's Supreme Court.

Sollecito was also found guilty and received a 25-year sentence.