Concern for mental state

Former University of Otago academic Clayton Weatherston appeared "cool, calm and unconcerned" about having been arrested for murder, a jury in the High Court at Christchurch heard yesterday.

Weatherston was brought to the Dunedin Central Police Station cell block at 3.45pm on January 9 last year, about three hours after he had stabbed ex-girlfriend Sophie Elliott to death.

His calm attitude raised concerns about his mental state, the senior officer on duty when the accused was brought in told the court.

"I asked that he be placed in an observation cell where he would be monitored on a regular basis, every 12 minutes, and would also be under video surveillance," Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross said.

An emergency psychiatric services consultant who checked Weatherston advised he was "a high suicide risk" and instructed he be monitored constantly.

The issue of Weatherston's mental state meant the taking of his fingerprints was overlooked.

It was not until three days later, when he was on duty again, that an officer was sent to the Otago Correctional Facility to take Weatherston's prints, he said.

He understood the accused was fully co-operative, he told defence counsel Judith Ablett-Kerr QC.

Snr Sgt Ross was the 16th Crown witness in the trial of 33-year-old Weatherston on a charge of murdering Sophie Elliott (22).

The hearing, before Justice Judith Potter and a jury now reduced to 11, has completed eight days of evidence.

One of the eight male jurors was discharged yesterday because of illness.

The officer in charge of the homicide scene, Detective Constable Joanne McLaughlan described how she and other officers who went to Miss Elliott's bedroom about four hours after the killing found the young woman's body lying on top of an open suitcase on the floor.

Between her legs was a bloodied and bent silver knife blade and a small pair of black-handled scissors, also with blood on them and with the tips bent.

The knife handle was not visible, but was recovered from the lid of the suitcase after Miss Elliott's body was removed.

There were hairs on the bloodied knife handle and she found a clump of hair in the suitcase, Det Const McLaughlan said.

She noted a large quantity of bloodstaining on the carpet around where the body had been and in one corner of the room.

Blood was spattered on the wall to the left of the door and on another wall beneath the window.

A pair of scissors was missing from the kitchen and there was a metal skewer on the hallway floor outside the bedroom.

Miss Elliott's mother, Lesley, earlier told the court she had used a metal skewer to unlock the door of the bedroom after she heard her daughter screaming.

Det Const McLaughlan said she later used another metal baking skewer to unlock the door.

She found a clear plastic supermarket bag beside the leg of a stool in the room.

It had blood on it and contained an orange-coloured T-shirt, a leather armband, two braided bracelets and a copy of Animal Farm.

In a black satchel/computer bag, she found blood-marked items, including documents in Weatherston's name.

One was a Westpac bank cheque personalised to Sophie Elliott made out to Clayton Weatherston for $100.

The court has been told Miss Elliott had given Weatherston the cheque a few days earlier to pay for damage she caused to a door at his flat.

 

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