'My gift to Soph will be saving others'

Lesley Elliott in her daughter Sophie's bedroom. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Lesley Elliott was unable to save her daughter from an ex-boyfriend's murderous rage, but is determined to steer other young women away from abusive relationships as a legacy for Sophie Elliott.

After four weeks staying composed in Christchurch's High Court as her daughter's killer stood trial, Mrs Elliott finally broke down in her husband Gil's arms yesterday when Clayton Weatherston was found guilty of Ms Elliott's murder.

The former economics lecturer, who spent hours in the witness box boasting of his achievements and attacking his victim's character, had failed to convince the jury that Ms Elliott had provoked him into stabbing and cutting her 216 times.

Mrs Elliott, forced to relive the moment she walked on on her "loving, vibrant" daughter being stabbed to death on January 9 last year, finally found some closure, and a chance to put some of the "ugliness behind her".

The Elliott family and members of Clayton Weatherston's family embraced after the verdict.

"We are parents, the same as they are, and it must have been very hard for them, as it has been for us," Mrs Elliott said.

In an interview with the Herald prior to the verdict, Mrs Elliott said she now wants to focus her energies on keeping young women away from abusive and dangerous relationships. Her daughter had complained of being assaulted by Weatherston prior to the killing.

"My legacy to Soph is to somehow get to girls in their late teens and twenties, when they start to date guys, and [explore] what is acceptable behaviour and what isn't," she told the Herald.

"I spent the last five months of her life, just endless hours with her crying and spilling it all out, and trying to give her advice. I used to say to Soph, there are hundreds of nice men out there. You don't have to stick with this crap [from Weatherston]."

Flanked outside court by her husband and sons Chris and Nick after the verdict, Mrs Elliott said she was pleased the jury had reached the right decision.

"It's been a long 18 months for us and we needed to see justice for Sophie, for her loss of life and also for a lot of other girls that may be in that position.

"And while there were times when Sophie would have said 'oh, just give it a miss Mum, don't worry about it, it's not worth it, move on,' I think she would want to see this day as well."

Mr Elliott said while the correct verdict had been reached "it doesn't bring our lovely daughter back".

Weatherston's father, Roger, said his family loved his son very much and would continue to do so.

"We were shocked at what he did, and couldn't understand it, as it was out of the character of the person we know," Mr Weatherston said.

"We have been grateful for the opportunity to listen to the evidence at the trial and now have some understanding of this terrible event.

"We are very sad that we did not recognise that Clayton needed the help that he clearly does, and hope that now at least he will receive it. Our thoughts are very much with the Elliott family and their tremendous loss."

Mrs Elliott told the Herald that listening to Weatherston attack her daughter's character from the witness box had been hard.

"Even the judge said to start with: 'Sophie is not on trial.' Well it jolly well feels like it. And it was like that from the beginning. She's had to defend herself from the grave. But we don't have any control over that. It's just a fact of life.

"What's happened is that the offender has been able to get up there and say whatever he likes and Sophie's not here to defend herself."

Mrs Elliott said having her daughter's private thoughts laid bare to the court was particularly hard.

"We felt very offended by them using Sophie's diaries. Her electronic diary was written by her with obviously no intention of it ever being read by anyone else. They are very personal. We haven't even seen them."

Weatherston will be held in custody until he is sentenced on September 15. His lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr QC, yesterday said it was not appropriate for her to comment with the case still continuing.