By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter
Raffaele Sollecito has paid a secret visit to the grave of murdered student Meredith Kercher, it has emerged.
The 29-year-old computer studies graduate is currently back on trial accused of the brutal knife killing along with his former girlfriend Amanda Knox, 26.
The news that he went to Miss Kercher's grave will come as a shock to her family, who have asked several times that Knox stay away from the final resting place - despite her making several pleas to visit.
Details of Sollecito's secret trip to the grave emerged during an Italian TV programme to mark six years since the murder in Perugia and came just days before he is due to attend the retrial ordered by Italy's Supreme Court.
According to the programme, Sollecito was taken to the cemetery at Coulsdon, Surrey, by an English friend of his while visiting London in March - at the same time as the retrial was announced.
Raffaele Sollecito is now living in the CaribbeanHe did not ask for permission from Miss Kercher's relatives and, according to the Quarto Grado show, he is said to have ''said a silent prayer'' for the British student but he did not leave any flowers.
The Kercher family have never accepted Sollecito and Knox's insistence they had nothing to do with the murder.
Miss Kercher, 20 was found semi-naked with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house she shared with Knox and two Italian women.
In September, Knox stunned the Kercher family with a bizarre request, saying she hoped one day she could visit the final resting place of her friend.
However, in a statement Miss Kercher's sister Stephanie made it clear the family will not concede to her wish.
Amanda Knox is now back in AmericaKnox and her then-boyfriend Sollecito were arrested and charged five days after the murder and at their initial trial in 2009 were convicted and sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively.
But two years later an appeal court overturned the original verdict and they were immediately freed with Knox flying back to her home in Seattle where she was given a rapturous welcome.
Sollecito returned to his home in Bisceglie near Bari.
However, it has since emerged that he has moved to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.
But his father has insisted he will return later this week to appear at the trial in Florence where he is expected to make a formal statement to the court.
Rudy Guede is serving 18 years for Miss Kercher's murderLast week a fresh forensic report ordered by the court was leaked and it revealed that although Knox's DNA was on a knife believed to be the murder weapon crucially there was no trace of Miss Kercher or Sollecito on it.
Sollecito's father added he had ''no details'' of his son's visit to the grave but said his son has always felt huge sympathy for the Kercher family for their loss.
Drifter Rudy Guede, 26, was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting Miss Kercher in 2008 and sentenced to 30 years, but this was later reduced to 16 years and he could be released on parole by 2018.