The heartbroken mother of murdered student Meredith Kercher has spoken for the first time about the family's first Christmas without her daughter.

Arline Kercher spoke exclusively to the Croydon Guardian from her Old Coulsdon home three weeks after they were finally allowed to lay Meredith's body to rest.

Meredith, 21, was murdered while studying in the Italian town of Perugia in Italy - her body was found semi-naked with her throat cut in a house she was renting on November 2 last year.

Describing how hard Christmas had been, Arline revealed that Meredith would have celebrated her 22nd birthday just three days later, on December 28.

She said: "Christmas was really hard, it was very sad without her. It was Meredith's birthday three days after Christmas and so we had that to deal with as well. We celebrated that in our own way but as you can imagine it was very hard.

"We always knew it was going to be hard but because of her birthday it made it a lot worse."

Arline lives in Fairdene Road, while her ex-husband John lives in South Croydon.

The couple have three other childen - Stephanie, John and Lyle.

The family home is filled with wreaths and flowers from the funeral - one of which was a basket of flowers signed from the City of Perugia'.

She added: "I have had so many letters from Italian mothers shocked at what happened to Meredith. It has been very comforting to receive those along with all the cards and notes I have had from her friends.

"It was the first murder in that part of Italy for 20 years so it has shocked the whole community around Perugia and the mothers there have been very sympathetic."

Friends of the family say that Arline seems to be coping well following the tragedy but she told the Croydon Guardian that the recent events have left her feeling very depressed.

It is understood that she took on most of the financial responsibilty of putting Meredith through university and now she is facing costly repair bills for her home, which has fallen into disrepair.

When faced with a question about the suspects currently being held for her daughter's murder, Arline looks straight ahead thoughtfully before adding that she is not allowed to talk about the case.

Arline added: "It is just shocking how many young people are being killed nowadays. It is amazing - it is only just the start of a new year and already there are so many people who have lost their lives unnecessarily in the first few days.

"It is awful and after what happened to Meredith and my family then I can completely understand because I know how I felt and how hard it actually is."

Meredith's American housemate, Amanda Knox, 20, and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are being held in custody in Italy.

Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, was arrested in Germany and has been extradited to Italy to face charges in connection with the former Old Palace School girl's murder.