I think if not Grace, eventually it would be someone else.. Backpacker killer’s flatmate on moody creep’s threats
FORMER flatmates of the creep who killed Grace Millane lived in fear of him – and one took a knife to bed for protection.
Warped Jesse Kempson, 27, was destined to kill, one flatmate said. She told how the fantasist took a stream of Tinder dates back to the flat he shared with her and two female pals.
She said his mood darkened in drink and after the worried flatmates asked him to leave, he sent messages threatening to ruin their lives.
The woman said she “felt a huge sense of relief ” after Kempson was convicted of choking British backpacker Grace and dumping her body. She said: “I think if it was not Grace it would have eventually been someone else who would have crossed paths with him.”
Kempson – who claimed to be rich – moved into the flat in Auckland after replying to a Facebook post. The flatmate said: “Most nights he would drink... his whole mood would change. It didn’t take long to realise he was not who he said he was and nothing he said was true. Once, I came home around 11pm. My flatmate messaged me and asked me to come into her room. I went in and she had a knife in her bed. I asked what had happened. She told me he had been drinking and that she felt uncomfortable around him.”
The flatmate said she had moved to the UK by the time Grace vanished last December. Recalling news of Kempson’s arrest, she said: “My stomach dropped, I felt sick for weeks. Initially I was thinking, what sort of person could do such a thing? But when I found out it was him, I thought, oh right – he’s the sort of person who could do that.”
Grace, of Wickford, Essex, was killed a day before her 22nd birthday. She went to a casino before returning to Kempson’s hotel. He will be sentenced in February.