My girlfriend screamed as she stabbed herself to death in hot tub, claims murder accused
A MAN accused of murdering his girlfriend has claimed that she repeatedly stabbed herself in a hot tub.
Aren Pearson, 41, said he saw Claire Leveque, 24, ‘plunge’ a knife into herself.
Prosecutors claim Pearson murdered fellow Canadian Ms Leveque at his mother’s home in Shetland.
Yesterday Pearson, who was living in Sandness with his Scots mother, told the High Court in Edinburgh that Ms Leveque had been drinking whisky in the hours leading up to the incident.
Pearson said that she had heard him speaking to her father in Canada about how much alcohol she was consuming.
He said her drinking was causing him problems in his personal life and he wanted to send her back to her father using ‘200k’ of money made from ‘online investments’.
Pearson told his lawyer Iain Paterson, KC, that she overheard this conversation and lost her temper.
He said she struck him and grabbed a knife before jumping into a hot tub. Pearson added: ‘She stabbed herself once – near her rib and pulled it out.
Aren Pearson, 41, denies murdering Claire Leveque in Shetland
Prosecutors claim Pearson murdered fellow Canadian Ms Leveque at his mother’s home in Shetland.
‘She looked at me. She looked almost surprised that she didn’t feel it. She started to scream.
‘She maybe plunged herself four or five times.’
Pearson said the couple came to Scotland in October 2023. He told the court their relationship became ‘too toxic’ when drink was taken.
Describing the day of the alleged murder, he said: ‘We were having a nice afternoon but it turned into a horrible one.’
Pearson said Ms Leveque drank about a ‘third of a litre’ of spirits, adding: ‘She guzzled a whole bunch of it and she started abusing me again.’ He said he told her to go to bed and then called her father, Clint, in Winnipeg, to tell her that he had booked flights to take her back home to him.
The accused said that he did not know she had overheard the conversation and had heard him talking about her drinking. She reacted badly and told him she may have drunk from a bottle of brake fluid.
He said he was trying to get her into his car so he could take her to hospital in Lerwick. It was at that point, he claims, she struck him, ran to a shed with the hot tub and stabbed herself repeatedly.
The court heard that Pearson drove his Porsche car into the sea from a nearby beach. He said he couldn’t remember doing that.
The jury earlier heard evidence that Pearson told a doctor at the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick that he had been trying to ‘get rid’ of Ms Leveque.
Speaking about this to Mr Paterson, Pearson said: ‘That’s been taken out of context. What I meant by that was sending her back to Canada, not killing her.’
When Mr Paterson asked him whether he could have attacked Claire after she allegedly struck herself with the knife, Pearson replied: ‘I suppose so. Anything could have happened.’
Pearson denies seven charges including murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
The trial, before judge Lord Arthurson, continues.
