Dad: 'He f***ing strangled her'

Emily Longley's on-off UK boyfriend has been charged with her murder. Photo / Supplied

The British son of a wealthy jeweller strangled his New Zealand girlfriend in a jealous rage at his parents' home before they helped him cover up the murder, a court heard today.

Elliot Turner, 20, allegedly "flipped out" and killed student Emily Longley, 17, in his bed during a drunken argument.

Jurors were told he had become increasingly suspicious she had been having affairs during their four month relationship while she was studying in England.

The court heard Turner had threatened to kill the blonde teenager, an aspiring model, with a lump hammer and boasted to her "I will go to prison for it and still be a millionaire when I come out."

Turner allegedly even demonstrated how to strangle someone on a friend and applied so much pressure his friend could not breathe.

CONFESSION 'DESTROYED' BY FATHER

Winchester Crown Court heard that after the murder Turner wrote a letter of confession but it was ruined with bleach by his father, Leigh, 54 to "destroy vital evidence."

Jurors heard that a police bug of the 350,000 pounds Turner home in the affluent Queens Park area of Bournemouth recorded the family talking about "fabricating evidence and being worried about lying to police."

The court heard that after the death, Turner's mother, Anita, 51, removed from the house a coat her son had worn on the night of Emily's death.

Police scans of computers seized from the home found Google searches for 'death by strangulation' and 'how to get out of being charged for murder.'

INCREASINGLY VIOLENT RELATIONSHIP

Prosecutor Timothy Mousley told the court Turner had become increasingly violent towards Emily, who is from Auckland, during their four month relationship.

He said "In the early hours of of the morning of May 7 last year Elliot Turner strangled and killed Emily Longley.

"They had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a short period of time in which Elliot showed himself to be threatening, aggressive, violent, controlling and possessive.

"He became suspicious of Emily and distrusting of her.

"These aspects of his character became more and more obvious and culminated in his killing Emily in his bedroom in the middle of the night.

"The state of their relationship can be seen from what friends of theirs saw when they went out socialising, from their text messages between them and from what Elliot Turner was telling others.

"In February 2011 Emily told a friend of hers, Carla Simons, that on one occasion after she had been out clubbing with Elliot that he had grabbed her by the throat during the course of an argument.

"In March they went to the Isle of Man and after her death police found a note she had written to him in distinctive pink handwriting on headed paper from the hotel they stayed at.

"It said 'I love you. Do not say you will kill me. Stop talking about your ex girlfriends.

"'Stop being so constantly aggressive. Be more cool because that is so much more hot.

"You make me scared because you are so intimidating. I hate that you are aggressive.

"Stop being so controlling and disrespectful because it will fuck me up.

"I love you."

COURT TOLD OF TURNER'S JEALOUSY

The court was told that Turner became jealous after Emily changed her Facebook profile picture of the pair of them together during a three week holiday to New Zealand in April.

Mr Mousley said: "Elliot Turner left a message on a friend's voicemail.

"It said 'I should've listened to you. She changed the picture of us within two seconds, it's pathetic.

"She changed it to her flirting with some other lads and made me look like a nob."

Mr Mousley said on April 30 the pair had a text message argument after Turner accused Emily of seeing other people.

He said: "Emily replied: 'seriously, is this a joke?

"Oh My god it's so f***ing over. Bye Elliot, I'm going out with Carla tonight.

"He then texted his friend, Luke Ashford, and said 'I'm going to smash his fucking head in with a mallet.'

"The references to a mallet became more frequent on May 5,6, and 7 and it turned out to be a lump hammer."

The court heard that later that evening witnesses saw Turner with Emily at the Bella Rosa club in Poole where he grabbed her head and hit it on the table.

Mr Mousley said the couple seemed to patch things up afterwards and spent the day together in Portsmouth on May 5.

He said: "However later that day, Emily wrote him a message that said 'You keep singing the same song and I don't think I can give you what you want."

He told the court that in the evening Emily went to a club called Klute and Turner arrived with the hammer in his trousers.

He said: "He arrived with his friend Tom Crowe and was telling him he was going to kill her.

"He went looking for her but when he came back to the car he told his friend he had done something awful with the mallet.

"He said he had clubbed her six or several times around the head and spoke about killing her and made himself cry.

"He said he was a murderer and was going to go to prison - but in fact he had not done that."

STRANGLING PRACTICE

Mr Mousley said that on May 6 he and his friend, Mr Crowe, went to a park and Turner had asked him how to kill Emily.

He said the pair practiced strangling and at one point Mr Crowe was not able to breathe.

Later that evening Turner and Mr Crowe picked up Emily in his car and gave her some flowers.

Mr Mousley said: "The conversation deteriorated and throughout the night Elliot was being aggressive to his friends and Emily.

"He told her he would kill her and go to prison for it and still come out a millionaire."

He said Emily went back to a friend's house and Turner went round, where they made up and she went back to his house.

NEXT MORNING

The court heard that in the morning Mrs Turner phoned the ambulance after Emily was dead.

Mr Mousley said: "He told paramedics they had an argument that turned violent.

"She was kicking and punching him she had her arms around his throat and he had to defend himself.

"He said she had an argument and he went to get her a glass of water before she went to sleep.

"In the morning he woke up and she was dead."

Police were called and Turner was arrested that morning.

Mr Mousley said that phone records showed Anita had used the landline to call her husband about the discovery and it was not for another 40 minutes that paramedics were alerted.

POLICE BUG HOUSE

He said: "A police bug was installed in the house.

"On one occasion Elliot Turner said: 'I flipped out and went absolutely nuts'.

"I have never in my life felt such anger and it had been building up for a month.

"She punched me and I was so angry, I lost it.

"I grabbed her as hard as I could and pushed her down."

Mr Mousley said Turner had written a letter of confession but his father could be heard admitting he had destroyed it with bleach.

He said during a visit back to the family home, Mr Turner pretended to drop tablets to distract police so his wife could remove a jacket her son wore on the night of Emily's death.

Mr Mousley said pathologists found injuries consistent with asphyxiation.

He said Turner had scratches on his arm and Emily had his DNA under his fingertips.

He added that Emily's face had left a what amounted to a make up 'face mask' on one of Turner's pillows.

Mr Mousley told the court that police had recorded incriminating conversations in the Turners' house.

He said: "Elliot Turner was recorded as saying to his parents 'It's going to come back to me.

"'The fact I said I was going to kill her, I sent messages saying I was going to kill her and I went into a club with a weapon.

"'It's all going to come out and f*** me when I get to court.'"

He added: "In the recording his father says 'What we did was destroy vital evidence, that letter was a confession.

"'I can't tell them about the letter I destroyed with bleach saying he killed her, that's perverting the course of justice.

"'He f***ing strangled her.'"

Mr Mousley said that when Turner was arrested he had his passport and had packed his belongings.

On the evening of her death, the couple had been to the exclusive Cafe Shore restaurant in Sandbanks in Poole where they drank cocktails.

A friend of the couple, who can't be named for legal reasons, told the court Elliot had spoken to him about the moment he discovered Emily was dead.

The 17 year old said: "Elliot said he woke and Emily had her arm around him, cuddling.

"But he said she was stiff and her eyes were glazed over.

"Emily was a fun, young girl but Elliot was really controlling.

"If she was out with friends he would make us drive down there and say it was because 'there might be boys talking to her.'"

The trial continues tomorrow.