EX-FL ATMATE SAID HE WAS VIOLENT LIAR
A FEMALE flatmate of British backpacker Grace Millane’s killer was so terrified of him that she went to bed with a knife to protect herself from an attack.
Twisted fantasist Jesse Kempson, 27, who was found guilty on Friday of strangling Grace, 22, had moved into a house with three other girls after responding to a Facebook advert.
But his flatmates quickly regretted their invitation when it became clear he was a drunk and a liar who brought a stream of online dates back to the house in Auckland, New Zealand.
One of the ex-flatmates, who asked the Sunday People not to name her, said: “I think if it was not Grace it would have eventually been someone else that would have crossed paths with him.
“Most nights he would drink and after a few drinks his whole mood would change.”
Kempson bragged he owned a BMW and a £700,000 house in Sydney, Australia.
He also claimed his family were successful restaurateurs in Australia and were looking to buy an Auckland restaurant.
But his lies didn’t fit with the fact he rented a £ 90- a- week room that was so small it could only fit a bed.
The car salesman also quibbled over paying bond for the flat, accusing the other flatmates of ripping him off.
“It didn’t take long to realise he was not who he said he was and that nothing he said was true,” the girl said.
Women he met on the online dating app Tinder would arrive at the house and he would take them straight to his bedroom.
The three flatmates became so disconcerted by Kempson’s behaviour that none of them wanted to be in the house alone with him.
The ex-flatmate said: “I was on a late shift and came home around 11pm.
“My flatmate messaged me when she heard me arrive home and asked me to come into her room.
“I went in and saw her and she had a knife in her bed. So I asked what had happened.
“She told me that Kempson had been drinking and that she felt uncomfortable around him.” One evening when they thought Kempson was out, the others met in the living room to discuss how to get him to move out.
The ex-flatmate said: “We were talking about the situation and agreed that we were all going to ask him to leave the next day.
“The thought was scary because we didn’t want to confront him or for him to get angry.”
But it turned out Kempson was in his room. He emerged with a bag slung over his shoulder and a sad look on his face and said his mum had just died and he had to urgently go to Sydney.
Hiding
defence” – in which he claimed Grace was the victim of extreme but consensual sex – has sparked outrage.
And campaigners have now called for a change in the law.
Susan Edwards, a barrister and law professor, said: “The defence and the defendants are manipulating what is violent and misogynist violence against women and saying that they have asked for it, that they have consented.”
Kempson’s ex-flatmate had left New Zealand to live in the UK by the time Grace – from Wickford, Essex – was murdered.
She said: “I was telling people it’s such a safe country and that the whole thing was very out of the ordinary and weird.”
But after discovering Kempson had been arrested, she said: “My stomach dropped, I felt sick for weeks after.
“It’s an odd thing to say but when I heard he had been arrested it all kind of made sense to me.
“Initially I was thinking, what sort of person could do such a thin thing? But then when I found out it was hi him, I thought, oh right – he’s the s sort of person that could do that.”
She said s she felt sick when she read rea about the case and often of thought of Grace’s family.
The ex-flatmate ex-f added: “I was hopeful the jury would see the kind of person he was and they have have.”
Last nig night Kempson was i in n c custody in Auckland. H He will be sentenced on February Feb 21 to life with a probable pro minimum 10 ye years without
parole.