Grace Millane killer guilty of murder
A man has been found guilty of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane by a jury at the High Court at Auckland.
Millane died sometime between December 1 and 2 last year after she went on a Tinder date with the man in central Auckland.
The 27-year-old, who still has name suppression, denied murder and claimed Millane’s death was a tragic accident after the pair had rough sex at his apartment.
After more than five hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict.
Millane’s parents, David and Gillian Millane, sat through the entire three-week trial, where details of their daughter’s final moments with the man found guilty of her murder have been examined in forensic detail. They have heard graphic details about her injuries and would have seen photos the accused took of her body, when they were shown to the court.
Millane had been backpacking in South America before landing in New Zealand where she travelled to the Bay of Islands, in Northland, before returning to Auckland.
There she matched with the accused on Tinder and they agreed to meet up at SkyCity on December 1, the eve of her 22nd birthday.
After more than five hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict.
CCTV footage captured Millane arriving for the date and taking a picture of the Christmas tree at SkyCity – the last photo she sent to her family back home in Britain.
On the date, the pair visited a number of bars and were seen enjoying each other’s company, embracing, laughing and kissing.
Millane even messaged friend Ameena Ashcroft to tell her the date was going well, saying the pair ‘‘clicked’’.
Later in the evening, with the defendant’s arm her around her, Millane was captured on CCTV walking through the doors of the CityLife hotel where he lived.
Millane was smiling as she walked into the building in her black dress and Converse shoes, before the pair entered the lift to the defendant’s apartment.
Millane never left the apartment alive. Instead her body was contorted into a suitcase before her date buried her in a shallow grave in the Waita¯ kere Ranges, metres from the roadside. In the days that followed, the man tried to clean up Millane’s blood from his apartment and dumped her belongings in a park bin.
When he was eventually contacted by police, he lied about the last time he saw her and pretended the date had ended earlier in the evening and they had parted ways.
But in his second interview two days later, he admitted burying her body after he said he found her dead in his apartment.
The accused did not take the witness stand in his own defence but his lawyer told jurors the defendant did not intend to kill Millane.
Justice Simon Moore told jurors they could only convict the accused of murder if they were sure he intended to kill Millane, or he intended to injure her, knowing his actions might cause her death, but carried on regardless.