Elliot Turner is a “remorseless, controlling, possessive and vicious” character who murdered girlfriend Emily Longley, a court heard.

Those were the words of Timothy Mousley QC as he summed up the prosecution case to a jury at Winchester Crown Court yesterday.

Mr Mousley said Emily probably “stood no chance” against Elliot Turner, especially if she was being restrained and face down in a pillow.

Elliot’s version of events was that he needed to defend himself, but Mr Mousley said that need did not arise.

Mr Mousley also told the jury that the mucus, make-up and blood on Elliot’s white shirt and the scratch on his arm supported their case that Elliot used the sleeper hold on Emily.

Mr Mousley added: “We submit he’s remorseless, he’s controlling, he’s possessive and he’s vicious and he murdered her.”

Mr Mousley told the court that Elliot manipulated his parents and made his mother change her story. He added: “It is clear Elliot pulled the strings.”

He said Leigh and Anita Turner carried out a series of acts as “misguided loyalty” to protect their son by removing a jacket from Elliot’s room and destroying a note Elliot had written.

Summing up the defence case for Elliot, Anthony Donne QC said there was plenty of evidence that Emily was well capable of striking back. He described Elliot as “brash, flash, boastful, spoilt, volatile, obsessive, possessive and obsessed” and referred to him as a “loudmouth” and “hot air merchant”, who was “all talk, no action”.

Mr Donne reminded the jury that pathologist Dr Huw White said Emily could have died from natural causes and he could not rule out sudden adult death syndrome.

He questioned the lack of injuries on Emily’s body and added: “Any suggestion that this strong young man could have grabbed a 17-year-old as hard as he could around her neck and pushed backwards without leaving any mark internally or externally is totally, completely unreal.”

Mr Donne said: “Why, despite all the threats, would he want to kill the girl that certainly at times he obviously deeply loved?”

Summing up the case for Leigh Turner, Robert Grey told the jury Leigh did not take the jacket and was unaware his wife Anita had taken it.

Mr Grey also said Leigh admits to ripping up the letter but insists he did not read it and did not intend to pervert the course of justice.

“It wouldn’t have been obvious to him at that time that letter was evidence in the case,” Mr Grey tells the court.

The prosecution allege Elliot Turner, 20, strangled 17-year-old Emily in the bedroom in his family home in Queenswood Avenue, Queens Park, Bournemouth, on May 7 last year.

Elliot Turner denies murder and both of his parents, Leigh Turner, 54, and Anita Turner, 51, deny perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.