The provocation defence should now be dropped from the New Zealand statute books, says the family of Sophie Elliott after her killer was found guilty of murder today.
The justice system failed Sophie Elliott, allowing her killer to drag her name through the mud before a wide audience, Women's Refuge says.
The pivotal issue for the jurors deciding whether Clayton Weatherston was guilty of murder was whether the defence of provocation had been excluded, Justice Judith Potter said yesterday.
The 11 jurors hearing the trial of former University of Otago academic Clayton Weatherston for murder were allowed to go home last night, four hours into their deliberations.
Sophie Elliott's father left the court room when Clayton Weatherston's lawyer suggested his wife, Lesley Elliott's evidence was not reliable because of what she had seen that day.
There were gasps from the public gallery and Sophie Elliott's father and another man walked out of the High Court at Christchurch yesterday, when Clayton Weatherston's lawyer suggested Miss Elliott's mother was not a reliable witness because what she saw the day her daughter was killed must have traumatised her.
By the time he killed Sophie Elliott on January 9 last year, former economics tutor Clayton Weatherston was like "a coiled spring", his lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr, told the jury in her three-hour closing address yesterday
Clayton Weatherston made a deliberate, calm and premeditated decision to kill or mutilate Sophie Elliott, either before he went to her house or shortly afterwards, the jury hearing his trial on a murder charge has been told.
Clayton Robert Weatherston appeared to take virtually no responsibility for what had gone wrong in his relationship with Sophie Elliott or for killing her, Associate Professor Philip Brinded told the High Court at Christchurch today.
Clayton Weatherston's "significant lack of empathy or remorse" over the killing of Sophie Elliott were apparent to a psychiatrist who interviewed him in prison in May last year, the High Court in Christchurch heard yesterday.
All evidence in the murder trial of former University of Otago economics tutor Clayton Weatherston has now been completed in the High Court at Christchurch.
All evidence has been completed in the murder trial of Clayton Robert Weatherston in the High Court at Christchurch, and the court will begin hearing closing addresses on Monday.
Aspecialist psychiatrist has given evidence murder accused Clayton Weatherston was not mentally ill when he stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in January last year.
Clayton Weatherston appeared calm, reserved and in control of himself when he unlocked the door of the bedroom where he had just stabbed Sophie Elliott to death, a police officer said today.
Dunedin honours student Sophie Elliott died from blood loss after she was attacked in her bedroom by her ex-boyfriend, the High Court at Christchurch heard yesterday.
Two highly experienced psychiatrists will be called by the defence to describe Weatherston's complex personality characteristics which rendered him unable to cope with the situation which confronted him in Sophie Elliott's bedroom that day.
A former economics department colleague said he found murder accused Clayton Weatherston easy to get along with but was aware he was ultra competitive in his academic work.
Clayton Robert Weatherston says he has no memory of stabbing or mutilating his ex-girlfriend Sophie Elliott - apart from one stab into her throat with a pair of scissors.
Clayton Robert Weatherston was narcissistic and obsessive but had "no disease of the mind" when he stabbed Sophie Elliott to death, a psychiatrist told the High Court at Christchurch today.
Sophie Elliott was clearly dead when he dragged her body from the corner of her bedroom where he had attacked her, murder accused Clayton Weatherston agreed in cross-examination yesterday.