Poor, poor Emily Longley

Hi Bloggers,


*Note: Not for the faint-hearted/non-liker's of gruesome things*

It will be a weekend like no other for the group of 12 people in Britain whose job is to consider whether Elliot Turner murdered Emily Longley.

The group of 11 men and one woman have spent 19 days listening to evidence from a number of people, including murder accused Turner and his parents Anita and Leigh, who have both been accused of perverting the course of justice.

The prosecution has alleged that Turner killed 17-year-old Longley in a jealous rage on the night of May 6-7 last year and his parents helped cover it up.

Turner denies the allegations.

The 20-year-old jeweller's son has told the court how the couple fought the night before Longley was found dead.

He grabbed her by the neck for several seconds, left the room and wrote a note to his mother and then returned to his bedroom and fell asleep next to Longley, Turner told the court.

He woke up. She didn't.

Now the jury must decide if Turner is guilty.

What the jury's heard so far

Winchester Crown Court has heard evidence linking Turner to the murder of the aspiring model, who he had been in a relationship with, and how his parents helped cover it up.

But the three accused have denied most of the charges against them. Turner denies a charge of murder and perverting the course of justice, but has admitted to attempting to persuade his mother, Anita Turner, to change her version of events.
Anita and Leigh both deny perverting the course of justice.

She was seen arriving at a café with friends, with Turner arriving later on in the night.The jury was shown footage early on in the trial which showed Longley on her last night.

Texts from Longley's friends said Turner had a "hissy fit" and tried to punch her, before she eventually walked out of the cafe alone.

The footage shows Turner again followed her out of the bar, where he was reportedly heard to have shouted "she's ruined my life, she's twisted my heart".

Later on Turner said "I try so hard to get back with her. She's going down tonight," a mutual friend of Longley and Turner's Oliver George told the court.

George said there was an "awkward" atmosphere between the pair that night and that Turner had told Longley she looked like a "whore".

Friends said the pair had a volatile relationship, with Turner telling his girlfriend he was going to kill her on multiple occasions. Turner admitted to saying that 10 to 15 times, but told the court he didn't mean it "literally".

The prosecution and Turner

Emily Longley and Elliot Turner were together for four months. During that time Turner came to mistrust Emily, believing she was cheating on him.

This ultimately led, the prosecution alleged, to Turner strangling the 17-year-old after a fight in his bedroom at his parents' Bournemouth home on May 7 last year.

"Elliot showed himself to be threatening, aggressive, violent, controlling and possessive ... these aspects of his character became more and more obvious and culminated in his killing Emily," prosecutor Timothy Mousley, QC, said.

Friends and witnesses helped police build a picture of an aggressive relationship with frequent and fiery arguments.

Turner was seen pushing and shoving Emily and was heard to threaten her life - even repeatedly discussing methods of killing her.

He spoke of drowning her in a bath, dousing her with petrol and setting her alight or forcing her to take a drug overdose.

In the early hours of May 6 Turner told two friends he had smashed Emily over the head seven times with the hammer that night until he "heard her skull crunch".

"He then started crying hysterically ... he said it happened outside Klute [a bar] in the carpark and he threw her body in the bushes outside," Jasmin Snook testified.

"Then he burst out laughing and said 'I'm f***ing joking'."

He later told Snook: "Emily is safe at home - in a parallel universe I would have killed her."

Later that day Turner and a friend practised strangulation techniques. Again, he spoke of how he could kill her.

He also text messaged another friend saying: "I am going to kick this bitch in the head ... hello darling have you met Mrs Mallet," he said, referring to the hammer he had earlier joked about murdering her with.

That night, at a local bar, all hell broke loose between the couple. They argued, he called her a whore. Emily threw her drink over Turner and told him it was over.

She stormed out, he screamed: "I will kill her. I will go to prison for it and still be a millionaire. I would do 10 years. It wouldn't bother me."

Soon after, Emily was strangled, her makeup leaving a "face mask" smeared into Turner's pillow.

Police suspected foul play and bugged the Turner house, recording conversations about Emily's death.

"It's going to come back to me," Turner is heard telling his parent on one recording.

The fact I said I was going to kill her, I sent messages saying I was going to kill her and I went into a club with a weapon," he told his parents.

He said he was in "dire straits" and a screw had "just gone" in his brain.

"I just flipped. I went absolutely nuts ... just uncontrollably. I did grab her quite hard, but then I stopped. I realised I was causing her pain. She started crying ... She sort of collapsed on the floor and I have seen it happen before. I didn't think much of it.

"I woke up next to her and she was freezing."

Conversations between Anita and Leigh Turner about destroying evidence were also recorded.

"That was a confession ... that letter I destroyed with bleach saying that he has killed her but he didn't mean to do it," Leigh Turner said to his wife.

"Neet, stop denying it. He f***ing strangled her."

In an earlier conversation Leigh Turner said his son was convinced he would be "done for murder ... because he has done something and he knows something."

He also said: "We have perverted the course of justice, we have destroyed the vital evidence in this case. Morally I think we were right because we're parents, but by the law we haven't. You know we shouldn't have destroyed that letter ... it's burning me, Neet."

Turner's parents

Although police say a secret recording of the Turner home recorded Leigh Turner, 54, saying a letter his son wrote attested to him murdering Longley, Leigh told the court he never read it.

He did tell the court, however, that he found the note and ripped it up, but did not believe that he was perverting the course of justice in doing so.

"I just thought the worse. I didn't know what it was. It might have said Elliot might have had some involvement, or something written down that might have happened that night."

Anita Turner, 51, also admitted to removing a jacket from Turner's room when it was a crime scene, but says police officers saw her doing so, so she did not believe she had perverted the course of justice.

Anita cried at times during the trial. She cried when her son was on the witness stand and when she was also questioned.

She told the court she called her husband before emergency services because she didn't think Longley was dead.

Longley was often hard to wake, especially after a night out drinking, she said. So she tried to wake her by getting her to sip tea and smell an orange before realising something was terribly wrong, which is when she called her husband.

Police recordings heard Anita telling her son: "She kicked you and kicked you, even though she is slim she does kick boxing, it was self defence. Stick with it."

Later Anita was heard saying: "You have got to stick to it that you didn't do anything."

When asked about her comments she told the court: "I don't know what self defence means.

"It's what they say in the movies when someone has a fight and an accident happens. When I told him to stick with it I meant stick with the truth."

The jury also heard a recording of her telling her son that Longley had ruined his life.

He is heard saying: "I was always the one who looked like the bad guy but she caused it. That f***ing bird. That girl has ruined my life."

To which his mother replied: "She did, she did ruin your life."

Under cross examination Anita Turner was asked if she thought Longley had ruined her son's life.

She paused for several seconds before saying: "No." 


*Note 2: I did not fully write this, it is compiled from different news articles*