Killer speaks of stressful life

Clayton Weatherston is accused of murdering Dunedin student Sophie Elliott. Photo / The Press / Pool

Sophie Elliott lunged at her former boyfriend with a pair of scissors, upset at a suggestion about sexually transmitted disease, before being stabbed to death and mutilated, a lawyer alleged yesterday.

Greg King was speaking in defence of Clayton Weatherston, who is charged with murdering Ms Elliott.

Yesterday, the former Otago University economics lecturer began giving evidence in the High Court at Christchurch.

He spent 2 hours in the witness box, covering only his early life, education and career - including a stint wearing the outfit of the Otago rugby mascot, Shaq the Cat.

He spoke of his history of anxiety and illness brought on by stress, and of receiving counselling and taking antidepressants.

Today, Weatherston is likely to begin telling of his relationship with Ms Elliott, whom he met when he was a tutor and she was a student at Otago University.

They began a relationship in 2007. She was killed in January last year.

The defence says Weatherston was driven out of control by the tumultuous relationship and "lost it" when Ms Elliott attacked him with scissors in the bedroom of her Dunedin home.

He inflicted 216 stab wounds, including blows that penetrated her heart and vital blood vessels in her neck.

Weatherston told the court he was "top of all my subjects" at Kaikorai Valley High School, ending up as dux. He also enjoyed sport.

At 6, he said he was reading the newspaper and occasionally drinking black coffee.

He had been frightened on his first day at high school, so his elder sister took him.

While his friends stayed with billets on sports trips, Weatherston's parents would stay in motels with him because he had a bed-wetting problem.

After school, he felt pressure to go to university. "I didn't have a clear direction, shall we say."

On several occasions Weatherston was cut off in his evidence as he expanded on topics, supplying additional information about his academic and sporting achievements, and strayed from the original question.

Earlier, Greg King told the jury in opening the defence that his client "starts very much behind the eight ball. And no one is asking you to like him. What we are asking is simply that you listen to him."

Mr King said it was ludicrous to suggest Weatherston was a cold-blooded killer who had planned the murder of Ms Elliott.

Weatherston had features of anxiety disorder and narcissism and his complex psychological make-up made him vulnerable to provocation.

When he went to Ms Elliott's home on January 9 last year, Weatherston had a knife that he carried with him routinely. If he had planned to murder Ms Elliott, he would have taken a much sturdier knife, Mr King said.

In Ms Elliott's bedroom, Weatherston made a comment to her about whether he should be tested for a sexually transmitted disease, in reference to a trip Ms Elliott had made to Australia.

Ms Elliott became distraught, swore at him and lunged at him with the pair of scissors, Mr King said.

Weatherston's glasses were knocked off and "he was gone". Without his glasses he was left in a "vulnerable" state because he could barely see without them.

"He had lost his ability to control himself. He had lost his ability to refrain himself," Mr King said.

"You know what he did. And it's horrific. It's just horrific."

Weatherston was guilty of an extremely serious offence, which was manslaughter. Manslaughter was not a "light option".

"It in no way minimises the grief or the trauma that [Ms Elliott's] family and friends have undoubtedly experienced.

"And equally importantly, it in no way suggests that Ms Elliott was in any way to blame for what happened to her."

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA