Weatherston continued stabbing Sophie's dead body

BY JOHN HARTEVELT

Lesley Elliott says "the whole room seemed to be red," when she walked in to her daughter's room to find Clayton Weatherston stabbing her dead body.

Lesley Elliott is this afternoon continuing evidence in the trial of Clayton Weatherston, who is charged with murdering her daughter, Sophie on January 9 last year.

Elliott gave evidence about what she saw while she was on her cellphone with emergency services.

She said she could remember seeing blood coming from her daughter's eyes.

"I remember that vividly. The whole room seemed to be red," Elliott said.

"The room to me, in my mind, was red."

A record of the 111 phone call said Elliott had indicated Weatherston was standing, but this was not correct, she said.

"I know that he was kneeling because he was stabbing her up and down and his body wasn't moving. He was kneeling over her legs," Elliott said.

Lesley Elliott is this afternoon being cross-examined by defence counsel Judith Ablett-Kerr.

She has been questioned about aspects of her daughter's past relationships, including a four-year relationship which ended acrimoniously.

Ablett-Kerr suggested Elliott had struck her former boyfriend and scratched him in the face, but Lesley Elliott said she was not aware of that happening.

The defence argues that Weatherston was provoked to kill Elliott. They say Elliott attacked Weatherston with a pair of scissors and that he was provoked by a "torrid and tumultuous" relationship with her.

Weatherston denies the murder charge but yesterday admitted he was guilty of manslaughter.

He allegedly stabbed Elliott more than 200 times in her bedroom on January 9 last year.

'SOPHIE WAS DEAD. CLAYTON WAS STILL STABBING HER'

Earlier, Lesley Elliott told of watching Weatherston repeatedly stabbing her daughter's already dead body.

Weatherston told Lesley Elliott that he "had something" for her daughter when he arrived at the house.

Soon after, Elliott said she heard her daughter screaming, "don't Clayton," or "stop it Clayton".

Elliott said she "tore upstairs" straight away.

"She just started screaming and screaming and screaming. I tried the door but it was locked," Elliott said.

"I kicked the door and belted it and screamed at Clayton to open it, but he didn't."

"I was belting it and kicking it."

She could not hear anything other than her daughter's screams. Then she fell silent and there was a bumping noise.

Elliott said the thumping sounded like the headboard hitting the wall.

"In my mind, I thought Clayton was raping her," she said.

Elliott said she managed to jimmy the door open and saw her daughter lying dead, with Weathston straddled across her, still stabbing her.

"Sophie was dead. Clayton was still stabbing her," Lesley Elliott said.

"She was lying in the corner of her bedroom, just inside the door. She was dead white and her eyes were staring.

"Clayton continued to stab her in the chest. He was straddled over her legs."

Elliott said she saw Weatherston stabbing her daughter with a knife.

"It was quite obvious. His arm was going up and down like this," she said.

"I thought he was going right through her and that was what the rhythmic noise was."

The court has taken a morning adjournment.

COUPLE 'TRADED BLOWS'

The court this morning heard that Weatherston and Elliott assaulted each other just days before Weatherston killed her.

Lesley Elliott said her daughter came home very upset on December 27 2007, after she had visited Weatherston at his home.

Sophie Elliott had made a photo album with pictures from his graduation, which she wanted to give him as a Christmas gift.

At Weatherston's home, he had asked if they could go to bed and have sex  "or words to that effect," Lesley Elliott said.

"And she said, no Clayton, you're not getting the message, it's over."

Elliott was to move to Wellington to start a job at the Treasury in January 2008. When Elliott spurned Weatherston's advances, he became aggressive.

"She said it's over and she wanted to go. He turned from being very nice to her to someone who was quite nasty," Lesley Elliott said.

"There was a lot of wrestling going on."

Weatherston had his arm up to Elliott's chin and his other arm across her mouth. She was trying to shout. He lost his grip and he ran to the car, Lesley Elliott said.

Weatherston had shouted at Elliott: "When you were coming back from Australia I hoped the plane crashed so you would die."

Elliott had been on holiday in Australia during November 2007.

Lesley Elliott has this morning also described an incident at Otago University, where Sophie Elliott pushed Weatherston in to the same position he had done to her.

She said, "that's what you did to me, and my Mum and my friends have told me I should go to the police."

- © Fairfax NZ News