Sophie’s legacy

Jarrod Booker in the Herald reports:

Sophie Elliott would be turning 26 today if she had not been brutally murdered by her former boyfriend.

Her father, Gil Elliott, imagines that his daughter – due to take up a job with the Treasury the day after she was killed – would have become a “fully fledged economist” in Wellington, and would have flown home to Dunedin to celebrate her birthday with a special family meal and cards and presents.

During the Bidget lockup this year, I looked around the room at the many young bright Treasury staffers there. It’s a big day for them doing the Budget lockup and then the party that night in the Minister’s Office. And I reflected how Sophie would almost certainly have been one of those staffers in the lockup, if Weatherston had not killed her four years ago.

Today, to coincide with Miss Elliott’s birthday, her mother Lesley launches the book Sophie’s Legacy – A Mother’s Story of Her Family’s Loss and Their Quest for Change, along with the Sophie Elliott Foundation to help guide young women through life’s dangers.

Far too many women in NZ are killed by their partners or ex-partners. All too often the warning signs are there. The moment they hit you even once, is the moment you should get out.

In the book, Mrs Elliott reveals she discovered her daughter was stabbed 216 times only after the evidence was presented in court, 18 months later.

I was shocked when I heard this. The family should be told the basic details before court.

Sophie’s foundation is online here.