Tutor 'wanted to have last word'

BY JOHN HARTEVELT

New details of what Clayton Weatherston says happened when he killed Sophie Elliott emerged on the last day of evidence at his murder trial.

Associate Professor Philip Brinded, chief of psychiatry for the Canterbury District Health Board, yesterday appeared as the last of 35 witnesses at the trial in the High Court in Christchurch.

Brinded said Weatherston, a former economics tutor, had told him that before he killed Elliott there was conversation about her being a slut.

Weatherston, 33, denies murdering Elliott, 22, who was stabbed 216 times, at her Dunedin home on January 9 last year. He admits manslaughter, saying he was provoked when Elliott attacked him with a pair of scissors.

Brinded said that during a four-hour interview, Weatherston explained what had occurred in Elliott's bedroom.

Weatherston had mentioned a new relationship he was in "and he may have said that to antagonise Miss Elliott", Brinded said.

After some conversation about Elliott being a slut, she had picked up a pair of scissors from the floor and took a swing at him, missing. She took another swing and Weatherston thought, "I'm in trouble here".

Brinded said Weatherston had recalled that he had a knife in the pocket of his computer bag.

Weatherston had said that he then felt a degree of vertigo and felt stressed, but "nothing physical".

"It was almost like I was pounding a pillow, like I was floating," Weatherston had said.

He had "reverted to compliant Clayton" when the first police officer arrived.

Weatherston blamed Elliott for the situation he was in, Brinded said.

Weatherston had told him the killing "had destroyed everything for him" and brought shame on his family.

"He had significant difficulty over the status Miss Elliott had posthumously. He thought it was very unfair on him," Brinded said.

Weatherston thought publicity in favour of Elliott had created an "imbalance against him" and there had been a "rewriting of reality" about Elliott.

Weatherston had read a report on the injuries inflicted on Elliott's dead body and said he felt that it was as though someone else had caused them.

"He speculated that they might represent the emasculation of the relationship or that Miss Elliott used sex as a weapon," Brinded said.

He told the 11-person jury it was his opinion that the defence of insanity could be ruled out.

The idea that Weatherston could have committed the killings in an unconscious, "automatistic" state could also be ruled out.

Weatherston could, however, be diagnosed as suffering from a personality disorder of the cluster B category dominated by narcissistic personality traits, with some histrionic and borderline traits.

"The evidence from the trial, I believe, could be seen to further reinforce this view," Brinded said.

Asked by defence counsel Greg King what "histrionic" meant, Brinded said: "Prone to fluctuating emotional expression, emotional outbursts and at times being somewhat theatrical."

The national director of mental health, Dr David Chaplow, was earlier challenged under cross-examination by the Crown about his assessment of Weatherston having dysfunctional interpersonal relationships.

Crown prosecutor Marie Grills said Weatherston, a research fellow at Otago University, had a reputation for helping students.

She said he had three long-term relationships of two to three years, which Chaplow agreed would be important.

Grills said Weatherston's mother had described her son as having "a good circle of friends".

"Particularly from the rugby team he played on, and later on [he] maintained a number of successful relationships with males and females," Weatherston's mother had told Brinded.

Chaplow said Weatherston's narcissism manifested itself when he was frustrated, spurned or threatened.

"It is not always operative and he does have many positive attributes as well," Chaplow said.

Weatherston's mother, Elliott and another former girlfriend had all noted his inability to let things go, he said.

"In spite of good advice from many quarters, he was unable to let go, wanting to have the last word, make his point by humiliation, and so we had the final tragedy," Chaplow said.

The court was adjourned until Monday for summaries so final legal arguments can be heard in closed court today.

- © Fairfax NZ News