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Clayton Weatherston, the 33-year-old University of Otago economics lecturer who stabbed his then girlfriend 22-year-old student Sophie Elliott 216 times with a kitchen knife has been found guilty of murder in the Christchurch district court.

Weatherston admitted killing Elliott but denied murder and tried to prove that it was man slaughter by saying that she in fact provoked him to do it.

January 9, 2008 saw Weatherston make his way to Elliott’s family home, lock himself in her room and repeatedly stab her, mutilating her body including 26 stab wounds to the temple, and various lacerations to her face and sexual organs. When Elliott’s mother tried to intervene after hearing loud banging and screaming, her pushed her out and continued his assault.

The jury of 12 took less than four hours to conclude that Weatherston murdered Miss Elliott and was not provoked to do so as the defence argued. They said she had rushed at him with a pair of scissors and along with his insecurities about their sex life, apparently due to Elliott’s attitude towards it, was therefore provoked.

Weatherston will be sentenced on September 15, 2009.

In another twist, the New Zealand government has indicated that it will scrap the controversial provocation law which says that if a defendant was provoked into their action by the victim, then they can argue for the charge of manslaughter. In this particular case, Weatherston’s defence used this law to its full, and to most of the New Zealand public, is was not justified.

Read my previous Weatherston article here.