Weatherston oblivious to the horror of a nation

Clayton Weatherston will be remembered for his arrogance as much as for the murder he committed. Photo / The Press, pool

His performance while on trial for the horrific murder of Sophie Elliott has made him the subject of a nation's vitriol, yet through it all, Clayton Weatherston appeared oblivious or unbothered.

The long-haired, neatly dressed, bespectacled former university tutor - who will long be remembered for his arrogance on the witness stand, as much as for the terrible crime he committed - seemed to take on the challenge of beating a murder charge with the same gusto as the academic studies he invariably aced.

Only this time there was no A+ grade to satisfy the huge ego the public came to know and loathe. His future now lies in prison with fellow criminals of much lesser intelligence.

His hours spent boasting of his accomplishments from the witness box, trying to outsmart the prosecution and seeking to paint Ms Elliott as the villain, appeared to come to nought. But perhaps it was as much about having his moment in the spotlight - a misguided attempt to impress people - as it was about dodging a murder conviction.

"There is certainly a sense that Mr Weatherston believed himself to be special, and is described as frequently needing other people's admiration," said a psychiatrist, Associate Professor Philip Brinded.

Whether giving evidence himself or seated in court listening to others, Weatherston frequently smiled or enjoyed a joke, while Ms Elliott's shell-shocked parents sat expressionless only a few metres away.

Whether the person portrayed was the real Weatherston, or a character suited to his defence of a helpless killer, is unclear.

Certainly psychiatrists who tried to get inside his head were convinced this was someone with genuine psychological issues that brought out the traits that the public found so hard to swallow.

They found no signs of severe mental illness, but diagnosed Weatherston as suffering from personality or anxiety disorders, and being prone to "narcissistic rage".

"In regard to his personality functioning, he agreed that he never allowed others to treat him like 'shit'," said psychiatrist David Chaplow.

When he went to Ms Elliott's Dunedin home on January 9 last year, Weatherston says, he did not intend to kill her. Rather he blamed his unique psychological make-up for his losing control as Ms Elliott taunted and then attacked him with a pair of scissors.

There was little or nothing in the way of remorse. His defence said it was his narcissistic character at play. The most he conceded was that he "played a part" in the death and mutilation of Ms Elliott.

He spoke of her with contempt, saying from the time they met at Otago University in May, 2007, she physically and emotionally abused him until he could no longer cope.

"I was in a relationship and I wasn't going to be controlled. So I left it. That's all there is, there's nothing more to it. And now I'm free of the relationship."

Ironically, Weatherston had researched borderline personality disorders on the internet, not for himself, but in regard to Ms Elliott. He painted her as a fantasist who saw the pair as the characters from Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

"I think she fervently wanted to have an interesting life and part of that was engaging in an element of melodrama."

Weatherston agreed he was frustrated with a trust set up at Otago University in Ms Elliott's honour and at her "contrived legacy".

"Clearly I'm not Sophie's biggest fan because of the relationship we had, and in my view she's an attempted murderer, or attempted a serious assault."

He told psychiatrists he was horrified and felt nauseous at the extent of his mutilation of Ms Elliott, as though someone else had done it.

Yet he also gave an insight into his targeting of certain areas of Ms Elliott's body as somehow representing the "emasculation of the relationship" that he felt, or how Ms Elliott had "used sex as a weapon".

Prosecutors said it was much more simple: Weatherston hated Ms Elliott and he had told people this the day before he killed her. They referred to his "penis envy" - his obsession with the size of his genitals compared with the previous sexual partners of his girlfriends.

Weatherston's lawyer, Greg King, told the jury that "no one is asking you to like him". Certainly the jury's body language suggested they didn't like him, from early on.

Even Weatherston's own lawyers seemed exasperated at times by his insistence in trying to manage the evidence he was giving rather than answer questions put to him.

Weatherston also seemed to derive satisfaction from sparring with prosecutor Robin Bates as he was cross-examined.

When Mr Bates tried to explore with him a threat he had made to a past girlfriend to throw his cat, Sophie, off a balcony, Weatherston said it was "in jest", and "I can't believe we are talking about this. You are really scraping the barrel".

When Mr Bates accused him of lying, Weatherston retaliated: "Are you lying Mr Bates? Are you not telling the truth?"

Weatherston had no criminal history. So where did this complex killer spring from?

He seems to have come from a typical, middle-class Kiwi background, described by his family as "easy and happy" and free of any major problems.

Born and raised in Dunedin, Weatherston was the youngest of three children - including sister Angela and brother Gareth.

His father, Roger, was an electrical fitter who worked on Central Otago dams but was around most of the time. Yet Weatherston was closest to his mother, Yuleen.

The family sat in the public gallery through each day of the trial, stony-faced as the chilling evidence was delivered.

Psychiatrists noted Weatherston's ongoing dependence on his mother. As a child he feared leaving home. Even as a teenager, when he went out of town on school sports trips and other pupils would be billeted, his parents would go with him and stay with him in motels because of his bed-wetting problem.

Mrs Weatherston was at a loss to explain what her son had done after the killing, as she had never seen any tendency to violence.

Weatherston's academic success, which he boasted of at length during his trial, began from early in his schooling.

From his primary-school days in the Dunedin suburb of Green Island, through to his years at Kaikorai Valley High School, Weatherston was always at the top of his class and also excelled in the sporting arena, where he was a champion sprinter and long jumper and a capable rugby player.

He was named dux of his high school, but was still "self-doubting" and says he felt pressure to go on to university.

After only two weeks enrolled at Otago University, Weatherston quit to pursue part-time study and got a job as a clerk at an accountancy firm where he found his colleagues "just traded time for money" and didn't have much enthusiasm.

Though seemingly set for a big career in the academic pursuits, Weatherston then branched out into unusual roles such as being an aerobics instructor and a statistician for the Otago Nuggets basketball team - and even donned a costume and pranced around Dunedin's Carisbrook Stadium as the Otago rugby team mascot, Shaq the Cat.

At university, Weatherston breezed through his bachelor of commerce degree with 24 out of 25 A+ marks.

But he says his over-analysing made him ill, and he sometimes missed exams - perhaps the first signs of what a psychiatrist would class an anxiety disorder.

Weatherston said: "The stress or anxiety got the best of me and it induced vomiting and whatever else".

After continuing to flourish academically and taking on teaching roles at the university, albeit with his ultra-competitiveness leading to conflict with some colleagues, Weatherston moved out of his parents' home in 2002 to start a job with the Treasury in Wellington.

Sophie Elliott was due to start a job at the same workplace when Weatherston killed her.

Weatherston became ill with glandular fever in Wellington, losing about 15kg, and ended up back in Dunedin, where he was close to his mother and felt secure.

Professor Brinded noted Mrs Weatherston saw a difference in her son when he returned from the Treasury. "It was Mrs Weatherston's view that her son has never quite regained his previous health ... She said over the next few years he appeared to fluctuate in his terms of his energy and mood."

While at the university, Weatherston sought medical help for anxiety and depression, and began taking the antidepressant Prozac. He told psychiatrists he upped his dose of Prozac by three times before killing Ms Elliott, and Dr Chaplow said this could have played a part in the killing.

Doctors' notes described him as "both a perfectionist and a chronic procrastinator", said Professor Brinded.

"Other complaints relate to social anxiety and feelings of being too passive, with no energy and decreased sexual libido.

"There appears to be a persistent complaint relating to relationships and difficulties with female partners."

The first sign of Weatherston's capacity for violence against women may have emerged in 2006 when he admits he assaulted his then long-term girlfriend.

The woman, whose name is suppressed, said Weatherston jumped on her, kicked her across the room, and hit her on the nose.

Weatherston said the woman's "recall is a bit scrambled" as he had only kicked her once and accidentally knocked her nose into her knee when he tried to jump over her.

But he conceded it was the worst thing he had ever done. "Seriously she could have died ... it was an extremely serious incident."

The woman told Dr Chaplow: "He won't forget anything that he construes as an insult ... he can't move on."

"He is not outwardly crazy, but if you dig deep he has big psychological problems."

In the end the jury did not accept that Weatherston's problems explained his crime. They saw what many others did: a remorseless, cold-blooded killer.