Mother tells of witnessing bloody attack through half-open door

Sophie Elliott's mother Lesley says she saw Clayton Weatherston straddling her daughter and stabbing her. Photo / Supplied

A former university tutor set out to disfigure his ex-girlfriend and student when he cut and stabbed her 216 times, a court has heard.

But Clayton Weatherston, who lectured on economics at Otago University, says he was provoked and lost control when he killed Sophie Elliott, 22, because of emotional pain he suffered and her first attacking him with a pair of scissors.

Weatherston, 33, is on trial in the High Court at Christchurch for the murder, and yesterday a jury of eight men and four women were told of the "horrific" injuries Miss Elliott suffered on January 9 last year.

The attack, which targeted her eyes, ears, nose, breasts and genitals, took place in Miss Elliot's bedroom in her Dunedin family home as her mother listened and tried to get into the room.

Lesley Elliott was able to open the door and caught a glimpse of Weatherston straddling her blood-covered daughter and stabbing her before Weatherston forced the door shut again, Crown prosecutor Marie Grills told the court yesterday.

When police arrived and an officer questioned Weatherston, he said in a calm, normal tone: "I killed her," Mrs Grills said.

Asked why he did it, Weatherston told the policeman: "The emotional pain she has caused me over the past year."

Mrs Grills said Weatherston and Miss Elliott, an economics student taught by him, had started a relationship in June, 2007 which was regularly "up and down" and "all on or all off".

Mrs Elliott told the court yesterday that the relationship between her daughter and Weatherston always seemed weird.

Weatherston seemed obsessed about his sexual prowess and the size of his penis compared with Miss Elliott's previous boyfriends, while Miss Elliott sought counselling over Weatherston's impotence problems.

"She kept saying, 'What do I do mum, to make him love me more?"'

By mid-December 2007, the relationship was all but over, Mrs Grills said.

The prosecution says that Weatherston drove to Miss Elliott's home on January 9, 2008, with a knife in his bag, telling Mrs Elliott he had something for her daughter.

Mrs Grills: "It is the Crown case that the accused, for whatever reason, decided to kill and disfigure Sophie Elliott and he did so in a calm and collected manner, with a significant degree of premeditation."

The 216 wounds were in clusters relating to beauty or attractiveness. Miss Elliott's ears, the tip of her nose, and her left nipple were cut off, while her hair was also cut.

She was cut or stabbed multiple times in the eyes, breasts and genitals, and 45 times in the front of her throat.

Weatherston's lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, said Weatherston had lost the power of self-control because of the emotional toll of his relationship with Miss Elliott.

"It was a relationship he was ill-equipped to deal with because of his own unique personality make-up."

Weatherston had blamed his relationship with Miss Elliott for him failing to get a lecturer's position at the university, the court heard.

Miss Elliott was packing for a move to Wellington to start a new job at the Treasury on the day she died. It was also Weatherston's birthday.

Mrs Elliott's evidence continues today.