The student lovers who murdered Meredith Kercher have suffered a blow to their appeals, after Italian judges announced there were no holes or inconsistencies in the original evidence.

Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito were found guilty in December of killing Miss Kercher, who was sharing a house with Knox at the time while on a year abroad in Perugia, Italy.

The case judges have published a 427-page opinion document explaining their reasons for convicting the pair, which calls the death a result of “purely random circumstances”.

It explains Knox and Sollecito staged a fake break-in to make it look like Miss Kercher was killed by an intruder, adding the murder was committed “without planning, without any animosity or grudge against the victim”.

The prosecution originally claimed the 21-year-old student died during a sex party which went wrong, before suggesting she had fallen out with Knox over the latter’s hygiene habits and interest in men.

The judges added Miss Kercher’s killers showed “a sort of regret for what they had done” by covering her body after the murder.

Knox was jailed for 26 years and Sollecito for 25 years for the killing, while small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede was imprisoned for 30 years for his part in the murder during an earlier hearing.

The 22-year-old’s cell mate, child killer Mario Alessi, has claimed Knox and Sollecito did not murder Miss Kercher after Guede allegedly confessed to him the real killer is on the run.

Alessi is believed to have told Sollecito’s legal team Guede was in the house with Miss Kercher and another man on the night of the murder, who has so far eluded the investigation.

He claims Guede told him Meredith had refused sex, and he found her bleeding from a stab wound after a trip to the toilet.

Guede’s lawyer Valter Biscotti said the claims were “all new” to him despite representing his client for more than two years.

He said: “[Guede] has always told me everything so I find it strange that he would say something like this to another prisoner and not to me.”