Millane’s online chats outlined in murder trial
‘Long day’ ahead as counsels prepare to sum up case today Warning: This report includes graphic content
The defence has closed its case in the trial of the man accused of murdering Grace Millane, and the jury has now heard all the evidence. Today they will hear closing arguments from the Crown and defence.
Trial judge Justice Simon Moore yesterday told the jury: “It will be a long day, I expect.” He will give his summation tomorrow.
Prosecutors allege that on December 1 last year — the eve of Millane’s 22nd birthday — the accused strangled her to death in his CityLife apartment in downtown Auckland.
The 27-year-old alleged killer, however, claims the British tourist died as a result of sexual misadventure.
The accused did not give evidence himself but his legal team, led by Ian Brookie, used a variety of witnesses on his behalf.
These included a forensic pathologist and an expert in sexual culture. They also produced evidence and statements about Millane’s sexual preferences, some of which were read to the court yesterday.
Material extracted from Millane’s laptop showed three chats from the BDSM online app Whiplr, of which Millane was a member. The court heard that BDSM includes bondage, domination and sadomasochism.
The 412 messages in August and September 2017 were between Millane and two unidentified men.
Some appeared to propose a casual sexual encounter with the first man, the court heard.
Millane, who appeared new to BDSM, talked of role play and discussed her desire to be restrained and blindfolded.
A Whiplr user who had connected with Millane had his police statement read to the court.
He said the pair exchanged messages and photos before Millane, using her full name, outlined her interest in BDSM and other forms of kinky sex.
Millane appeared to be “at an explorative stage and quite open to suggestions” but was “quite open to it and wanted to try it”, he said.
“I felt like Grace was more naive and trusting in the BDSM area. The users could be any undesirable person online, and Grace had a naivety.”
The court heard Millane last accessed Whiplr at 3.43am on December 1.
Richard Middleton, a private investigator hired by the accused’s legal team, said FetLife, of which Millane was a member, was “quite explicit”.
The retired detective inspector told the court he went to the United Kingdom to ask Millane’s friends to testify for the defence but witnesses outside New Zealand cannot be summonsed to court so those who knew Millane have had their statements read to the court during the trial.
One, a former sexual partner of Millane, talked of their relationship, how she enjoyed choking during sex and their practise of BDSM.
A female confidant’s statement said Millane “enjoyed her partner putting his hands around her neck”.
In court yesterday, a man who spent the night of November 30 last year with Millane — the day before she met the accused — said he had his hand “potentially on her neck” when they had sex.
The man, who has name suppression, met the “outgoing” Millane at the Base Backpackers and they
Young people are more likely to be interested in experimenting. Clarissa Smith
talked of her future travels to Fiji.
The pair messaged each other on Facebook before deciding to meet and return to the man’s apartment in downtown Auckland, he said.
During sex, he said, he may have placed a hand around Millane’s neck but “can’t remember 100 per cent”.
The man, who came forward to police after Millane died, said this was a “common” practise with women he was intimate with.
A British expert in sexual culture, professor Clarissa Smith from the University of Sunderland, also testified for the defence via video link from England yesterday.
Smith, whose studies have included taboo media and sexual ethics, said attitudes towards sex have drastically changed in the past three decades.
“It’s not just reserved for maybe one’s life partner or maybe marriage,” she said.
Through her research, she told the court, she learned how women were interested in themes of domination in erotic stories.
People now talk about sex as entertainment, she said, and it is “an incredibly important part of youth cultures”.
It was also now more common for people to “dabble in elements of kink”, such as erotic asphyxiation, which the court has heard Millane practised.
She said high-profile cases of celebrities engaging in erotic asphyxiation have increased its popularity.
The “point is not to be humiliated” or dominated, she said: “It’s about playing with the idea and feelings of humiliation,” she said. “But you want the feeling of being under control.”
She likened the feeling to that of being on a rollercoaster.
“Young people are, of course, more likely to be interested in experimenting and trying something new.”
Although safety should be of primary concern during erotic asphyxiation, she said, “in the heat of the moment that might not happen”.
She added that when alcohol or drugs were involved “safety may not be someone’s first priority”.
Yesterday, the defence called its own expert forensic pathologist, Dr Fintan Garavan, via video link in Miami in the United States.
Garavan said the “major participant” in Millane’s death was pressure on her neck — corresponding with the finding of the Crown’s expert pathologist Dr Simon Stables.
He, however, disagreed with Stables’ position that alcohol would not have been a factor.
Millane’s alcohol consumption may have led to a biological “safety valve” not kicking in, Garavan said.
The expert in the effect of drugs and alcohol on the body added it could “very well have been a secondary factor in the cause of death”.
CCTV shows the backpacker had several drinks on the night she died.
The doctor said the narrative of rough sex from the accused was also “an adequate” explanation as to how Millane may have died.