British backpacker Grace Millane met her killer on the dating app Tinder before he calmly went on a date with another woman while Millane’s body was stuffed in a suitcase at his hotel apartment, prosecutors at a New Zealand murder trial said yesterday.
Defense lawyers said Millane died accidentally as the result of a consensual sex act that went wrong.
They said the man restricted Millane’s breathing by applying pressure to the neck, news site RNZ reported.
Millane’s body was found in a forested area in the Waitakere Ranges near Auckland a week after she disappeared in December last year on the eve of her 22nd birthday.
She had been traveling through New Zealand as part of a planned year-long trip abroad after graduating from university.
The 27-year-old man charged with murdering Millane has pleaded not guilty. His name is being kept secret by court order.
RNZ reported that the defendant cried yesterday as his lawyer, Ian Brookie, made his opening statements.
Millane’s parents have traveled from Britain to watch the trial.
Millane’s death struck a deep chord in New Zealand, which prides itself on welcoming tourists and where many people also travel abroad.
Hundreds of people attended candlelight vigils after Millane’s death, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke about New Zealanders feeling “hurt and shame” that Millane was killed in their nation.
Crown Prosecutor Robin McCoubrey said that CCTV cameras filmed Millane and the man kissing and enjoying their time together on Dec. 1 last year at a burger joint, a Mexican cafe and then a bar, RNZ reported.
“They were plainly comfortable in one another’s company” before entering the man’s hotel rooms together, the prosecutor said.
He said the morning after the man killed Millane, he did Google searches for “Waitakere Ranges” and “hottest fire,” took intimate photographs of her body and watched pornography, RNZ reported.
The prosecutor said the man then hired a vehicle and bought a suitcase, stuffing Millane’s body into it.
He messaged another woman to confirm a date he had arranged earlier on Tinder and talked to her about how somebody could get in trouble for manslaughter after rough sex that went wrong.
“He doesn’t seem concerned by the presence of a dead body in his apartment, but goes up the road to have a date with another woman at a bar,” the prosecutor said.
“You may think he’s testing out a version of events he may later have to rely on, to see how it sounds,” he said.
However, Brookie said that the man had restricted Millane’s breathing with her knowledge and encouragement.
“Put simply, this death was an accident,” Brookie said. “He certainly didn’t murder her.”
The trial is expected to take up to five weeks.
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