ELLIOT Turner strangled girlfriend Emily Longley to “shut her up”, a court heard yesterday.

In secret police recordings, Elliot’s father Leigh Turner can be heard whispering the contents of a letter he later admitted in police interview to destroying.

Leigh Turner said: “He strangled her to shut her up, to stop her screaming, making so much noise and then he’d realised he’d done something terribly wrong and he should have phoned the ambulance to save her but he didn’t because he was scared.

“He strangled her, he stopped her breathing. That’s what it said in the letter.

“That’s what’s going over in his mind. He knows he’s killed her, not deliberately.” But in interviews, the 54-year-old told police he had not read the letter but had ripped it into four or six pieces, the court heard.

The recordings were made at the Turners’ home in Queens-wood Avenue in Bournemouth.

On another day Elliot spoke of going “nuts” and “psycho”. He added: “A side of me I never imagined. I was actually thinking I was insane, just like violent thoughts in my head for weeks.”

Elliot added: “No girl had ever pushed me that far. Taunted me, and ******* got to my core.”

The court also heard Elliot talking about the police finding material on his laptop.

“I typed in death by strangulation, death by suffocation, man-slaughter trial, how to get off innocent, how to get away with serious crimes.

“They are going to link the marks on her neck with death by strangulation, with the suicide note... life sentence... boom.”

Conversations were recorded between Elliot Turner and his parents, Leigh and Anita, discussing what they should say to the police about the half hour delay between Anita calling her husband at work and making the 999 call.

Elliot said: “That looks so guilty.

“But to get out of that would be completely believable, you are annoyed with Elliot because he is late again.”

Anita: “But I didn’t say that.”

Elliot: “No you wanna say something like that.”

“What we’ll do, we’ll write this down for y’know for what you’re gonna say.”

In a police interview Mrs Turner told police there was a delay in calling 999 because she’d experienced problems waking Emily from her sleep before.

Elliot Turner, 20, is accused of murdering Emily Longley, 17, on May 7 last year.

He is also accused, together with his parents Leigh Turner, 54, and Anita Turner, 51, of perverting the course of justice. All three deny the charges.

The trial continues.