Murder Cover Up Parents Jailed

A wealthy jeweller and his wife who disposed of evidence to help cover up after their jealous son murdered his girlfriend at their Bournemouth home have been jailed for 27 months each.

Elliot Turner, 20, was found guilty by a jury at Winchester Crown Court in May of murdering 17-year-old Emily Longley in his bed after going ''absolutely nuts'' in a jealous rage.

Sentencing the couple, Mrs Justice Dobbs said: "I appreciate it must be very difficult for a parent when faced with the situation you found yourself in but you well knew what you did was wrong and against the law.

"You gave no thought to the consequences for your youngest son and now he is going to be without his parents for an important part of his development."

She said the act of destroying a confession letter was a 'very serious offence' and added: "It strikes at the integrity of the criminal justice system."

She said: "It was one act of destruction but in a sense it continued because you didn't have the guts to go to the police and tell them what you had done."

The judge said that she understood that Mrs Turner was still coming to terms with the fact her son was a convicted murderer.

She added: "I take into account you are people of previous good character and from that you have not been sentenced to a term of imprisonment before.

"People speak highly of you both and it's a tragedy that you, who are both respectable people, have lost that by acting out of misplaced loyalty.

"It must be hard for you to come to terms with what the jury found your son did."

Speaking of Elliot's younger brother, Mrs Justice Dobbs added: "He has had to live with the knowledge that his brother was convicted of murder and, if that was not enough, his parents have been convicted of a serious offence and that must be a heavy burden to bear and he has lost his friends because of this."

Speaking of Mr Turner, she added: "You have expressed remorse for Emily's death but for your own actions you have shown precious little."

They helped to cover up the crime by destroying a confession letter from their son and taking away vital evidence after the killing at their home in Bournemouth, in May last year.

Their son was also sentenced to nine months, to run concurrently, for perverting the course of justice.

The trial heard that the killing was the culmination of a month of anger and upset over Elliot's suspicions that Emily was ''twisting his heart''by seeing other men.

He claimed in court that he acted in self-defence when Emily attacked him and he grabbed her by the throat for five or six seconds and then woke up to find her dead in his bed.

The prosecution said Turner used a pillow to smother Emily and then strangled her after she went back to his house to talk things over following a violent argument that night.

Emily's father, Mark Longley, called Elliot Turner ''evil'' and said he hoped he would suffer every day in prison.

Miss Turner had come over to the UK from New Zealand to study at college eight months before her murder.