A New Zealand man has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane. The 28-year-old, who has name suppression, appeared in Auckland High Court on Friday before Justice Simon Moore.
Justice Moore described the murder as 'cold-blooded', noting that the man showed 'complete disregard' for his victim. The judge highlighted that after killing Millane, the man did not call for help but instead embarked on a 'well-planned and sustained course of action' to conceal evidence, including packing her body into a suitcase and burying it in the Waitakere ranges.
Millane, 22, from Essex, was on a round-the-world trip when she died by manual strangulation on 2 December 2018 in the man's hotel room in central Auckland. The pair had met on the dating app Tinder. Her remains were found eight days later.
In a victim impact statement, Millane's mother, Gillian, said the loss had made her depressed and suicidal. She described her daughter as her 'best friend' and expressed torment over the terror and pain she must have experienced. The man bowed his head and appeared to cry as she spoke.
The Crown prosecutor argued the crime was 'personalised, depraved and callous', citing the man's consumption of explicit pornography and intimate photographs taken of Millane after her death. The defence sought a lower sentence of 10 years, citing the man's youth and traumatic upbringing, but the judge rejected this, noting the 'very high risk' assessment in the pre-sentencing report.
