MURDER accused Elliot Turner has admitted trying to pervert the course of justice over Emily Longley’s death.

Turner, 20, spoke only to plead guilty at Winchester Crown Court yesterday to the amended charge of attempting to make his mother Anita Turner change her story.

Elliot’s father Leigh Turner, 54, who denies perverting the course of justice, then took to the witness box.

The Birmingham-born owner of R E Porter jewellers, in Bournemouth, admits destroying a letter from Elliot to mum Anita, 51, but says he never read it.

Turner Snr welled up as jurors were played bugged conversations from the family home in Queenswood Avenue.

Elliot is heard telling his mum to change her account to police.

“Say that when you go back, it will be fine, it’s pretty believable" he said.

Turner Snr later broke down defending his son, who spoke of “losing it”.

“He does not get angry, he is a gentle clown, a stupid clown,” said Turner Snr.

Turner Snr said on discovering Emily: “She was ice cold like an ice cube, like a crystal.

“I realised she had passed away and said 'you remind me of a butterfly, sorry butterfly’.”

Asked several times to explain what was said in phone calls to Anita and Elliot that morning, Turner Snr said he could not remember.

He told the court he ripped up a letter from Elliot to Anita because he ‘feared the worst’ about what it might say.

Describing himself as paranoid, Turner Snr said he also worried when he overheard the pair talking about a mallet, an argument and ‘being hit’.

Jurors also heard how, as the ambulance for Emily was on its way, Elliot Turner told his dad he had packed a suitcase to leave for Spain.

Turner Snr said: “I said don’t be so silly you haven’t done anything.”

The prosecution alleges Turner, 20, strangled Emily, a 17-year-old Brockenhurst College student from New Zealand, in his bedroom in his family home in Queenswood Avenue, Queens Park, Bournemouth on May 7 last year.

Elliot Turner denies murder and his parents deny perverting the course of justice.

The case continues.