Clayton Weatherston called Sophie Elliott his "psycho girlfriend'', a Dunedin court has heard.
The court was also told Weatherston was in a good mood the morning of the day Miss Elliott died and was excited about making plans for his birthday celebrations that evening
During a cross-examination, University of Otago business graduate Sarah Forbes told the court that before she met Miss Elliott, Weatherston (32) and his friends referred to Miss Elliott as Weatherston's "psycho girlfriend''.
The evidence was given by Miss Forbes, who was a friend of Weatherston's, on the third day of deposition hearings in the Dunedin District Court for Weatherston, who is accused of murdering Miss Elliott (22) at her Ravensbourne home in January.
Defence lawyer Judith Ablett-Kerr queried Miss Forbes' statement to the police in which she said Miss Elliott's behaviour was ``possessive and jealous'' on the one occasion the two had met.
"That was an interpretation that came about through the reputation that had been actively constructed for me.
"The way I saw her behaviour that night was through a lens that had been given to me. Now I can look objectively through my own lens.''
When Mrs Ablett-Kerr suggested she now looked at it through a lens that saw Weatherston had killed Miss Elliott, Miss Forbes said: "That's not a lens, that's a fact''.
"We'll see about that,'' Mrs Ablett-Kerr said.
Miss Forbes earlier testified that Weatherston had asked her to come to his office the day before Miss Elliott's death.
In an ensuing two-hour conversation Weatherston talked, without her input, about Miss Elliott.
He had said he was concerned about Miss Elliott because she had arrived at his office the day before, shaking and sweating.
He said she had hit him in the face with her elbow apparently re-enacting what she alleged was an earlier assault by Weatherston on her at his place the week before and said to him ``now we are even''.
He said in the earlier incident Miss Elliott had come to his flat yelling and screaming and trying to hit him repeatedly, in his efforts to stop her he had pushed her on the bed and tried to restrain her.
Weatherston said Miss Elliott had told her supervisor Dr Robert Alexander about the incident and told Weatherston she thought he was trying to rape her.
"That concerned him.''
Miss Forbes said Weatherston also talked of the job he wanted and was looking forward to the future, but was concerned Miss Elliott was talking about him to other people.
He was concerned about Miss Elliott's welfare given her behaviour.
``He appeared calm and concerned. He said he had gotten out of the bad relationship with Sophie and was pleased it was over . . . he was glad she was going to Wellington.''
The conversation ended with her advising him to move on, Miss Forbes said.
"To cut her out his life and have nothing more to do with her . . . he said he had ended it.''
She said she met Weatherston in a staff tearoom the morning of the day Miss Elliott died, and he was in a good mood and was excited about making plans for his birthday celebrations that evening.
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