Weatherston to give evidence in own murder trial today

Sophie Elliott was killed less than an hour after Weatherston looked at her photo albums, the court heard. Photo / Supplied

Clayton Robert Weatherston is set to give evidence in his own defence at his trial on a charge of murdering his ex-girlfriend Sophie Elliott.

Defence counsel Judith Ablett-Kerr told the court he would take the witness stand, as the Crown case drew to a close in the High Court at Christchurch today.

The rules require that Weatherston, 33, will be the first of the defence witnesses to be called later today, immediately after the defence opening address.

Weatherston, 33, admits killing Miss Elliott but denies the charge of murder.

Earlier today, the court heard how an hour before he stabbed Sophie Elliott to death, Weatherston accessed her photo albums on Facebook for several minutes.

Kerry Baker, a member of the police electronic crime laboratory in Dunedin gave evidence on the 11th day of the trial.

Mr Baker has told the court he examined the computer from Weatherston's office in the Economics Department at the University of Otago and found Miss Elliott's Facebook site had been accessed and her photo albums looked at until 11.39am on January 9.

Miss Elliott was killed less than an hour later.

Questioned by defence counsel Judith Ablett-Kerr QC, Mr Baker agreed his analysis of Miss Elliott's Facebook logs, indicated a pattern of access to Weatherston's site followed immediately by access to the site of Sophie's former boyfriend. That pattern was apparent from late December 2007 until January 7.

But Mr Baker said there appeared to be "something unusual going on here", and that the visiting of Weatherston's page followed by the other man's might not be a conscious action on Sophie's part.

It could be something to do with the way her Facebook page operated, maybe some sort of linkage between the two, Mr Baker said.

The fact there was definitely a common pattern made him think it was "some sort of automated thing going on in the background" and not necessarily Sophie clicking.

"You're speculating about that," Mrs Ablett-Kerr suggested.

Evidence from one of the ambulance officers called to the Elliott house at 12.35pm on the day of Sophie's death was read to the court.

Patrick Bain, an advanced St Johns paramedic, said he checked Miss Elliott's carotid artery for a pulse but found none. He then put four defibrillator leads on areas of skin already exposed. He did not disturb any clothing, Mr Bain said.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES with NZPA