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\nClayton Weatherston who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Sophie Elliott in Dunedin. He stabbed the 22-year-old 216 times on 9 January 2008. File picture.
\nPhoto: File photo \/ Pool\n<\/p>\n
This story discusses graphic details of violence.<\/p>\n
Convicted murderer Clayton Weatherston has told the Parole Board that his mutilation of Sophie Elliott was “just an F-U to everything about her”.<\/p>\n
The 50-year-old has been declined parole and will remain behind bars until at least November 2027.<\/p>\n
Weatherston was an academic at Otago University who lectured in economics and had been in a relationship with the honours student.<\/p>\n
Elliott, 22, had left Weatherston and was packing up her life to move to Wellington to take up a job at Treasury on 9 January 2008, Weatherston’s 32nd birthday.<\/p>\n
Weatherston arrived at her family home in the Dunedin suburb of Ravensbourne armed with a knife.<\/p>\n
He stabbed her to death so viciously the knife broke and used a pair of scissors in his frenzied attack.<\/p>\n
Weatherston inflicted 216 stab or cutting wounds as well as seven blunt force injuries and disfigured her body.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning he appeared before the Parole Board for the first time after serving an 18-year non-parole period of imprisonment.<\/p>\n
His lawyer told the panel Weatherston was not seeking parole and understood more time would have to pass before he was eligible.<\/p>\n
Panel members asked Weatherston if he had reflected on his offending and had any explanation for his attack on Elliott and his actions after she was dead.<\/p>\n
He told the board the attack was “incredibly misguided” and he was ashamed and remorseful.<\/p>\n
“My offending was about alleviating frustration,” Weatherston said.<\/p>\n
“It was about alleviating my distress. A lot of the things going on in my life were projected on to her, anything I don’t like about her, anything I don’t like about myself.<\/p>\n
“It was a visceral, brutal way of wiping out someone you have perceived as hurting you in the worst way possible. It was just an F-U to everything about her and about that I am ashamed and ashamed I would channel that towards another person.”<\/p>\n
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\nSophie Elliot was 22 when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Clayton Weatherston in Dunedin on 9 January 2008.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
At trial Weatherston tried to blame the attack on Elliott, claiming the partial defence of provocation.<\/p>\n
Her death shocked New Zealand and Weatherston’s antics at trial further outraged the nation, leading to the partial defence of provocation being abolished by statute.<\/p>\n
“I feel shifting the blame, shifting the focus of behaviour away from me was completely wrong,” Weatherston told the Parole Board.<\/p>\n
“I certainly regret the nature of that court process. I think the focus should be on my behaviour and I really regret that, the way things played out at that time.”<\/p>\n
Panel member Alan Hackney asked Weatherston if he had any flashbacks or nightmares about his crime.<\/p>\n
“Yes, all of those things,” Weatherston said, impassively.<\/p>\n
“There are certain triggers in everyday life, mentions of certain words, comments from other people. Looking back it’s just extreme regret for the tragedy of the whole situation.”<\/p>\n
Upon reflection, Weatherston claimed his offending caused him a “high degree of anxiety and stress and shame”.<\/p>\n
Hackney remarked that Weatherston “described that incredibly calmly” considering the distress he described to the board.<\/p>\n
“I don’t feel calm and in fact I feel extremely emotional,” Weatherston said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not something that’s easy to deal with. Some days I get very emotional about it and some days I say ‘you just have to accept what has happened and move forward’.<\/p>\n
“Sitting here today and as I present to you, I’m trying to maintain myself in this environment,” Weatherston said, lifting his glasses and wiping an eye.<\/p>\n
During his trial, the court heard Weatherston had kicked another former girlfriend and made her nose bleed.<\/p>\n
He was asked about the conflicting accounts he had given of that assault and his responsibility for it.<\/p>\n
He told the Parole Board he maintained he was “jumping over” the woman and it was an “accidental act that I immediately apologised for”.<\/p>\n
The board heard Weatherston had not been involved in any misconduct during his time in prison.<\/p>\n
He had not undertaken any rehabilitation and there was some way to go before that could happen.<\/p>\n
Weatherston had read for more than 1000 hours and had familiarised himself with methods of psychology.<\/p>\n
The board heard he remained at high-risk of reoffending against intimate partners.<\/p>\n
Weatherston said he believed he had some element of neurodivergence and “some degree of personality traits”.<\/p>\n
When it was pointed out that clinicians had assessed him as suffering from a severe personality disorder he responded, “I don’t subscribe to the high degree of narcissistic personality disorder opined”.<\/p>\n
A support person told the panel that he had seen “a lot of change, growth and development” in Weatherston during his 18 years behind bars.<\/p>\n
Weatherston’s lawyer Roger Eagles said his client “does feel remorse and shame for his actions” and “understands the huge distress caused for the victim’s family and friends”.<\/p>\n
He said it was possible Weatherston would make “rapid progress” when he undertook rehabilitation because he was “undoubtedly a gifted man intellectually”.<\/p>\n
Weatherston told the board he was a different man from the “hard-charging, younger version of me”.<\/p>\n
“I want to verbalise my remorse and action it. I take it incredibly seriously,” he said.<\/p>\n
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\nGil Elliot, Sophie Elliot’s father, had sought a postponement order to prevent Weatherston appearing before the Parole Board again for several years, although it was not imposed.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Nate McKinnon\n<\/p>\n