Weatherston's friends called Elliott 'psycho girlfriend', court told

Murder accused Clayton Weatherston. Photo / Dean Kozanic

An Otago university research assistant said Clayton Weatherston's friends referred to Sophie Elliott as his "psycho girlfriend".

Sarah Forbes told the sixth day of the murder trial in the High Court at Christchurch that she went to Weatherston's office and he talked about Miss Elliott for two hours.

Weatherston is charged with the murder of Miss Elliott after stabbing her to death in the bedroom of her Dunedin home on January 9, 2008. The defence is claiming provocation.

Miss Forbes, a post graduate student, said it was a negative conversation and Weatherston had a slight concern for himself.

He asked her if he should be tested for a sexually transmitted disease as Miss Elliott had slept with someone else in Australia.

He did a re-enactment of Miss Elliott coming into his office and hitting him. He said she was shaking and sweating and he asked her if she was okay. He hugged her, but as he was finishing the hug, she struck him across the face with her elbow, and said that now they were even.

Weatherston said Miss Elliott went to his house and picked an argument. She was trying to hit him, and to stop her he grabbed her and they fell on the bed together. He stopped her from hitting him, got off the bed and told her to leave.

Miss Elliot slammed the door so hard it smashed, Weatherston said. He asked her to contribute to the repair of the door.

When Miss Elliott went to his office with a cheque, she was screaming so loudly the whole department could hear it, Weatherston told Miss Forbes.

Weatherston said she told him she thought he was going to rape her.

He told Miss Forbes he wasn't going to be controlled like Miss Elliott's previous boyfriend, who was submissive and easy to control.

Among Weatherston's friends, Miss Elliott was called his "psycho girlfriend".

Weatherston said he was looking forward to her working at Treasury, so that she would be out of his life.

She was really insecure about the relationship and did spot checks on his house, he said. She would go there in the middle of the night to check there was no other woman there.

Miss Forbes said Weatherston was concerned about university Professor Robert Alexander, and the way Miss Elliott would talk about Weatherston to him.

Miss Ellliott had told Weatherston she was going to say as many nasty things about him as she could, so he was concerned about his job prospects, Miss Forbes said.

He told Miss Forbes that if he didn't get the job at the university he could get a job back in Treasury.

Weatherston told her Miss Elliott had given him a photo album but he didn't want to look at it.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Greg King, Miss Forbes said Weatherston told her he thought Miss Elliott had a borderline personality disorder.

Weatherston complained to her that Miss Elliott was constantly flirting with other guys in front of him, and talked about her ex-boyfriend being easy to control.

She said Miss Elliott wanted to know why there were so many girls at Weatherston's graduation party.

Miss Forbes thought Miss Elliott was possessive and jealous and was "bad-mouthing" Weatherston at his own party.

- NZPA