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Source: ONE News -
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The university tutor who killed his former student and
girlfriend has given his version of what happened in her bedroom
that day.
Clayton Weatherston, 33, told a jury in Christchurch what made him
lose control and stab 22-year-old Sophie Elliott more than 200
times in her Dunedin home in January last year.
He also gave more evidence about their relationship.
Weatherston has admitted manslaughter, but is denying murder.
Called by the defence, Weatherston was back on the stand for the third day on Monday to talk about the weeks leading up to Elliott's death.
The self-confessed killer described the final moments before he stabbed Elliott to death.
"I just recall her coming at me with a pair of scissors from my left side as she said the words 'f... you Clayton'. But this happened very quickly. I remember trying to block her and I remember her hitting me around the face with her other hand. I didn't know where the scissors were. I grabbed her round neck hard as I could. You know, my glasses went off to my left," Weatherston said.
At this stage he says he felt huge stress and anxiety.
Weatherston had his laptop bag with him. Earlier he had told the
jury he always kept a knife in that bag for self defence.
"I remember pushing forward. I have memories of being very
disorientated, of falling on top of her. I have memories of being
extremely concerned that someone was going to stand on my glasses.
I have memories of possibly a certain movement, I'm still not
convinced but maybe a pounding movement. The most vivid
recall I have next is of standing or kneeling over her with a pair
of scissors in my right hand and the scissors had gone through the
front of her throat and I can feel a crunching sound, like it's
against her spine."
Elliott was stabbed and cut 216 times. Weatherston says he can't remember exactly what he did to her body.
"I haven't seen anything like, I haven't seen the photos or I
don't have any visual recall of the extent of the damage. And then
I leaned back against the bed. This seemed to be a very small gap
in time, maybe a few seconds."
That's when he says the police arrived and asked him what he had
done.
Earlier, he spoke about trips he made to the doctor concerning his lethargy and the strain of having a "high maintenance girlfriend".
Weatherston's cross-examination began late on Monday, the prosecution asking him why he had targeted areas of Elliott's beauty, something he denied.
The prosecution also asked why locked the bedroom door. He said he can't remember doing that but agreed he must have done.
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