Longley murder accused liked to boast

A wealthy jeweller accused of murdering his New Zealand girlfriend in a jealous rage told a friend he wanted to suffocate a former partner with a pillow after she left him, a court has heard.

Liam Costello, 21, told Winchester Crown Court on Monday that Elliot Turner, 20, who denies strangling 17-year-old aspiring model Emily Longley in his bedroom, was obsessive and annoyed when girlfriends left him.

"He would talk about them (girlfriends) quite a lot in a normal kind of chatty way. He was always trying to see them, trying to see where they were," Mr Costello said.

He said Turner would boast about sleeping with his girlfriends and would get angry if they left him.

When asked about one ex-girlfriend named in court as Laura, Costello said Turner said he had broken into her home to see her.

When asked by Tim Mousley QC, prosecuting, about what Turner said when he split with Laura, Costello replied: "He seemed to be pretty pissed off. He said if he saw her he would suffocate her with a pillow."

Costello said he talked about Emily with Turner over his fears she was seeing other men and he would get agitated.

One time Turner had said: "I will kill her, spend 10 years in prison and still come out a millionaire."

Under cross-examination, Costello agreed that Turner boasted a lot and he considered the wild comments he made were "fantasy and rubbish".

The court has already heard Turner and Emily had a volatile relationship. The couple had argued in the bedroom in Bournemouth, Dorset, on May 7 last year, and that he claims she attacked him and he defended himself.

Emily was born in Britain but her family had emigrated to Auckland when she was nine. She had returned to live with her grandparents in Bournemouth to study.