Amanda Knox's father has spoken out against a lawyer who called his daughter a "diabolical, Satantic, demonic she-devil" in court.

Knox is currently serving a 26-year sentence for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, who was found with her throat cut in the home she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy.

Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of the murder, but are in court appealing the verdict on the basis that the forensic investigation was flawed.

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The American language student first blamed bar owner Patrick Lumumba for the killing, who was subsequently arrested and released.

It was Lumumba's lawyer,  Carlo Pacelli, who made the comments about Knox in court, first accusing her of "falsely" blaming his client when "she knew he was innocent".

Pacelli then said: "She was a diabolical, Satantic, demonic she-devil. She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls, the clean one you see her before you and the other."

He added: "She is borderline. She likes alcohol, drugs and she likes hot, wild sex."

Afterwards, Knox's father, Curt, responded angrily to Pacelli's words.

He said: "It was so over top of what I believe would be necessary as a lawyer, he just assaulted her verbally and that's wrong, flat wrong.

"As the translation was coming in I was thinking, you are just so wrong. He doesn’t even know her, he has never met her and he basically assaulted her verbally in a court room."

The high-profile case has attracted a raft of media attention, with seemingly a lot of sympathy for Knox in more recent reports.

Last week, Kercher's parents complained that coverage of the case had forgotten the death of their daughter and was more focused on the 'plight' of Knox. 

The lawyer for Kercher's family has urged jurors not to overturn Knox and Sollecito's convictions, and showed graphic photographs of the British murder victim's wounds.

The defence will begin presenting its final arguments today.