ROME -- Lawyers for an African on trial for the slaying of a British student in Italy defended him as the only one of the three suspects who has stuck to his account.

The Perugia court could rule next week in the fast-track trial of Rudy Hermann Guede, a young man from the Ivory Coast who has said he was in the house last year when Meredith Kercher was found stabbed in the neck in her bedroom.

Lawyer Nicodemo Gentile told reporters that the defense argued Saturday that Guede always insisted he was in the bathroom and rushed out to try to help the young woman.

Kercher's flat mate, 21-year-old University of Washington student Amanda Knox, and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are also suspected in the case. Knox first said she was in the house but later denied that.

All three suspects deny wrongdoing.