Tutor tells court of struggles with Elliott

Weatherston told the court Sophie Elliot accused him of trying to rape her. Photo / The Press, Pool

Clayton Weatherston says he grabbed his former girlfriend Sophie Elliott by the wrists and pushed her onto his bed, after she had initially tried to push him into a book shelf.

The former Otago University economics lecturer, 33, says the incident at his Dunedin home occurred when he wanted to break up with Miss Elliott, 13 days before he killed her.

Weatherston is giving evidence in the High Court at Christchurch, where he is on trial for the murder of Miss Elliott, 22, on January 9 last year.

Weatherston stabbed and cut Miss Elliott 216 times and admits he is guilty of manslaughter. However he says he was provoked by Miss Elliott, and lost control.

The court also heard today about another incident prior to Miss Elliott's death, in which Weatherston said Miss Elliott assaulted him, and accused him of trying to rape her.

The pair had a tumultuous relationship in 2007, when Weatherston was a lecturer and Miss Elliott an economics student.

Weatherston said Miss Elliott came to see him at his home on December 27, 2007, and they had a long discussion about their relationship.

"I thought it was quite civil, at that time anyway."

It "started to ramp up a little bit" when Weatherston said he felt stressed, and Miss Elliott asked what he had to feel stressed about.

"She started to become a bit pissed off at me basically."

Weatherston said he told Miss Elliott to take her toothbrush with her, and she got terse and said she wanted her stuff back.

Miss Elliot walked into his bedroom and said she wanted back a book which Weatherston wanted to keep.

Weatherston said Miss Elliott was scanning the room and got upset, and went to push him into a bookshelf, or strike him with her right hand and push him with her left. He stumbled back, and then grabbed Miss Elliott's wrists and pushed her onto the bed.

He said he was on top of her when he told her "you should stop being so horrible about your parents", and she responded by saying: "F*** you Clayton".

Weatherston said he also told her she had an "undeveloped mandible" and told her to "f*** off".

He said he then escorted Miss Elliott out of his home in case she broke anything else - referring to a glass pane in his door Miss Elliott had broken in the past by slamming the door.

Miss Elliott took her toothbrush and walked out to her car and Weatherston said he followed her.

As she got into her car, Weatherston said he told Miss Elliott: "If your plane had crashed I would never have had to deal with any of this shit".

This was in reference to a recent trip Miss Elliott had made to Australia. Weatherston said he never meant he wished she was dead.

On January 7 last year, Weatherston said Miss Elliott came to see him at the university and they spoke in his office. He said Miss Elliott looked "pretty stressed out" and pale and sweating, which wasn't like her.

They had a long hug and Weatherston said Miss Elliott struck him in the throat with her right forearm, and under the chin with her left hand.

She then tried to grab the lower part of his face with her left hand, and came forward and said: "Now we are even".

"It was more my breath was taken away than anything," Weatherston said.

He said he asked why she had done it, and Miss Elliott told him that it was because he had previously assaulted her and had been going to rape her.

"I was pretty taken aback by it. I was extremely surprised. I was shocked by it."

Miss Elliott was "irate".

"I apologised about previous conversations where I was nasty."

Previous witnesses have stated that Miss Elliott complained of being pushed by Weatherston on the stairs as she was leaving after this incident.

Weatherston said this never happened.

He said he later spoke to a colleague about Miss Elliott's allegations and "how ridiculous they were".

Weatherston said he was left with feelings of panic and took a number of anti-depressants.

"I was extremely highly strung, and I couldn't eat."

"Stressed is an understatement."

Earlier, Weatherston told the court Miss Elliott would write him messages of an "R18 nature" as she sat in lectures he was delivering at Otago University.

"It certainly livened up the material we were covering," Weatherston said in his evidence today.

Weatherston said Miss Elliott would write the messages on notes handed out to the students so he could see them.

"It was a bit off-putting, but in some ways it was pretty sexy," Weatherston said.

"It was intruding a little bit on that environment - bringing that into the classroom might not have been the best."

Weatherston also told the court about how Miss Elliott would compare him to her past boyfriends, and in particular the size of the their penises.

She seemed to have an obsession about the size of this organ, he said.

"It was almost like she didn't want me to be sexually confident, because she was in fear of me going elsewhere."

Miss Elliott was extremely concerned that he was not as "sexually enthusiastic" as she was, and about how long the sex between them was, Weatherston said.

He said went to a doctor in October, 2007, with his concerns about his lethargy and lack of libido, and spoke about his "high maintenance" girlfriend.

On December 27, 2007, Miss Elliott came to visit him and gave him gifts that included a photo album with photographs she had taken at graduation functions.

Weatherston said he did not have a gift prepared to give her, so gave her a print of the Titanic, which she was not impressed with.

"I felt extremely bad because she had put in so much effort.....and she was so proud of what she had done."

He said he wanted to break up with her that day, and had made a list of things he wanted to tell her - that she was emotionally and physically abusive, and that he felt controlled and manipulated by her.

Other witnesses have evidence that Miss Elliott said she was assaulted on this day by Weatherston.