One of New Zealand's most violent killers, Clayton Weatherston has been denied parole at his first hearing, 18 years after he was sent to prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Sophie Elliott.
His possible release won't be considered again until November next year.
The convicted murderer, who is now 50 years old, killed the 22-year-old in a frenzied attack in her Dunedin home in 2008. His lawyer explained to the Parole Board that his client – who appeared in prison issue grey t-shirt, shorts and white Crocs – wasn't expecting to be paroled at this time but did feel remorse.
When Weatherston walked in the room with four supporters, Parole Board chairwoman Jan Marie Doogue asked him how he was feeling. He said he was "a bit anxious", to which she replied that it was "understandable".
Why one of NZ's most violent killers will stay behind bars 18 years on - Watch on TVNZ+
Sophie Elliott’s father Gil expressed relief that he wasn't being let out, but was disappointed he would have to go through the same process again in less than two years’ time.
"He broke down a couple of times in the hearing they had for him, so I don't know what that means. Was he sorry for himself?" he said.
Weatherston was a 32-year-old economics tutor at Otago University when he took the life of his former girlfriend partner in the most violent way. He locked her in her bedroom with him as she was packing to move to Wellington to start her dream job with the Treasury.
Her mother was in the kitchen downstairs. She heard her daughter's screams but couldn't get in the room to save her. When she did, she remembered everything being red.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Jeremy Skipworth asked the prisoner why he had stabbed her more than 200 times and then mutilated her dead body. Weatherston calmly replied that he had projected his uncontrollable rage onto her, because of the hurt he suffered in their relationship. He said: "It was a really brutal visceral way of wiping someone out... I'm embarrassed by the perverse nature of it; I'm disturbed by the primal urges."
When asked, he told the Parole Board he often had flashbacks to that day – his 32nd birthday. He said they caused him a high degree of stress and shame, and there were triggers every day in prison.
Clayton Weatherston fatally stabbed the 22-year-old in 2008. (Source: 1News)
Three new psychiatric reports described him as high risk, especially in an intimate partner relationship.
Weatherston accepted he had a lot of work to do and said he was ready to begin the process of rehabilitation. But he questioned a diagnosis of his severe narcissistic and psychopathic personality disorder.
"It's a hybrid more than the classification of narcissism in severe form per se. I don't subscribe to the extreme version of narcissistic personality disorder."
Gil Elliott met with the Parole Board yesterday, prior to today's hearing.
"What I said to the Parole Board, and they know anyway – certainly their psychologists do – is that narcissists do not change – they can't change. They're wired like that.
"Weatherston will be exactly the same as the day he went into prison 18 years ago."
The killer has spent a thousand hours reading psychology books behind bars and worked in the prison kitchen for seven years, where he was described as polite and respectful.
His lawyer said he felt remorse and shame for his actions, and understood the immense distress and upset he caused his victim's family.
However, he was asked by the Parole Board about his calm demeanour, as he talked about what he had done to Sophie. He replied: "I don't feel calm, I feel very emotional." Shortly after that exchange, he appeared to wipe a tear away and was handed tissues.
He did express regret that he'd used the partial defence of provocation, before it was abolished by then Justice Minister Simon Power.
At the trial he claimed their tumultuous relationship, which had ended a month before the attack, drove him to murder. He also claimed she had attacked him first with a pair of scissors. He said: "I feel that shifting the blame away from me onto Sophie was completely wrong... I really regret the way things played out."
It took 10 minutes for the Parole Board to come back with its decisions.
Doogue told him: "Clayton, you acknowledge that you have a long way to go and you acknowledge you have to work with psychologists on your responsitivity barriers – being your narcissism; your neurodiversity; your offence paralleling behaviour amongst other dynamic factors – and you acknowledge, I think, that this will take quite some time because that is the view of the three psychologists who have presented their reports to the board."
Gil Elliott added: "The bottom line is we don't want him out; we don't want him out at all. We don't think he should come out, not after what he did. He should stay there forever."
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