Accused made threats to kill Kiwi ‘10 or 15 times’
A wealthy jeweller’s son accused of murdering his New Zealand aspiring model girlfriend in a jealous rage has told a jury he had threatened to kill her 10 or 15 times during their volatile relationship.
Elliot Turner, 20, said yesterday he never meant it and claimed his alleged victim, Emily Longley, said the same thing and phrases like ‘‘I hate you’’ during their rows.
Turner denies strangling 17-year-old Emily in his bedroom in Bournemouth in May last year.
He said the pair got on well when they met and their relationship became sexual in December after they went out for a meal on a double date.
‘‘We just got on like a house on fire. It was amazing how well we got on. It was a really, really good time.’’
Turner explained that there were arguments but they were ‘‘petty’’, he said.
The jury was told Turner denied he was obsessive about Emily but he became aware she had been texting and talking to other men after looking at her Facebook page.
He also feared she had rekindled a relationship with an ex-boyfriend when she returned home to see her family in New Zealand in March last year.
He admitted that on the evening before she died he had called her a ‘‘whore’’ after they met up and she was wearing scanty shorts, a leopard-print bra and a small waistcoat, which Turner said meant he could see her breasts.
He also admitted he assaulted her in a bar and threatened to kill her the same night after she poured drinks on him as they argued in a booth.
Turner also told the jury he wanted to buy Emily a pink sapphire commitment ring and that he had been told some things about her past and her history of self-harming.
He denied talking to a friend, Tom Crowe, about how to kill Emily the day before she died, calling the accusation ‘‘rubbish’’, but said he had been unfaithful to the business studies student during their relationship.
The jury was also told that Turner had received a harassment warning letter from the police in January 2008 when he was 16, telling him not to contact an ex-girlfriend.
The case continues.