Murder of Grace Millane
Grace Emmie Rose Millane was a British tourist whose disappearance in Auckland, New Zealand, in December 2018 sparked international attention. A 26-year-old man was charged with her murder on 8 December 2018, and her body was found in the Waitākere Ranges to the west of Auckland the following day. The man was tried at the Auckland High Court in November 2019; he employed the rough sex murder defense. After a three-week trial, he was convicted by a unanimous guilty verdict and later sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. His name is currently suppressed by New Zealand courts, meaning it may not be published in New Zealand, however some international media outlets have chosen to publish his name.
Background and disappearance
Millane was from Essex, east of London. She had recently graduated from the University of Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in advertising and marketing, and was on a backpacking tour during her gap year.Millane was on a two-week stay in New Zealand after spending six weeks in South America. She entered New Zealand on 20 November 2018 and travelled around the upper North Island. She arrived in Auckland on 30 November. At 9:00 pm on 1 December, she was seen on Victoria Street in Auckland's central business district, and 15 minutes later she was seen via CCTV at SkyCity. She was last seen at 9:41 pm at the CityLife Hotel on Queen Street with a man who was subsequently charged with her murder.
Investigation
Millane's parents became concerned after she did not reply to birthday wishes they sent her on 2 December 2018 and police started investigating after she was reported missing by her parents three days later. The hotel she was staying at reported that she did not go back to her room on the night of her disappearance. Police initially said that there was "no evidence of foul play", but later gathered evidence that she was "no longer alive". Police announced on 8 December that they were treating the case as a homicide investigation, and a 26-year-old man was subsequently charged with her murder.Millane's body was found on 9 December at around 4 pm, off Scenic Drive in the Waitākere Ranges around west of central Auckland. A post-mortem examination was done on 10 December. Further investigations of the area where Millane was found were carried out on 11 December. Police asked for the public's help in finding a shovel they believed was related to the inquiry. A shovel fitting the police description was found on 13 December. Police also requested public help tracing the movements of a 2016 Toyota Corolla rental car that the accused leased between 2 and 3 December. The car had subsequently been re-leased and was located on 8 December in Taupo, south of Auckland.
Suspect
A 26-year-old man was taken into custody on 8 December at 3 pm. The man had been staying at the CityLife Hotel in central Auckland. He appeared in the Auckland District Court on 10 December 2018, charged with murdering Millane.The man was born and grew up in the Wellington Region. After his parents separated when he was nine, he was raised by his father and grandfather. His mother moved overseas while his father remarried and had a blended family. He worked as a bartender and builder/labourer and also lived in Sydney, Australia between 2013 and 2016. The man had an estranged relationship with his family due to his track record for dishonesty and alleged stealing. He also had a drink-driving conviction in New Zealand and had been arrested for disorderly behaviour in South Auckland and Sydney. His paternal grandfather also alleged that he had fathered a child while living in Sydney but this is disputed by other relatives.
Name suppression
During the initial appearance, the suspect was denied name suppression, but this was appealed by the defence, automatically triggering interim name suppression for a period of 20 working days. The suppression order cannot be enforced against international media outlets, and several outlets, particularly in the United Kingdom, chose to publish his name. Google included the man's name in an email it sent to subscribers of its newsletter on trending topics in New Zealand, which claimed that 100,000 searches had been done of the name within the country. Justice Minister Andrew Little and the New Zealand Bar Association criticised the foreign media, saying the publication of the accused's name endangered his right to a fair trial.The suspect was remanded in custody and appeared in the Auckland High Court on 16 January 2019 where he pleaded not guilty. His identity remained suppressed pending an appeal. The appeal was heard at the High Court on 7 February; the judge reserved his decision, meaning the order remains in force for the time being. On 7 February 2020, Auckland businessman Leo Molloy was identified as the individual who had breached the suppression order preventing the name of Millane's murderer from being made public.
Reactions
Millane's death generated an unprecedented reaction from the New Zealand public. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a public apology to the family of Millane on 10 December, saying "on behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise. Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't". During the press conference she appeared to be close to tears.The University of Lincoln, where Millane studied, said that its community was "deeply saddened" by her death.
Auckland's Sky Tower and Harbour Bridge were lit up in a white ribbon shape from 10 to 13 December to mark her death. Candlelight vigils were held on 11–12 December at several locations around New Zealand.
Journalists Alison Mau and Paul Little criticised the media coverage as an example of missing white woman syndrome, where significantly more media attention is given to "typically white, conventionally attractive" females from middle-class backgrounds who are depicted as "innocent" and "angelic".
On 10 January 2019, hundreds turned out for Millane's funeral at Brentwood Cathedral in Essex.
In November 2019, Radio New Zealand broadcaster Colin Peacock criticized the conduct of some foreign media in both the Grace Millane and the concurrent Amber-Rose Rush murder trials, arguing that their breaches of New Zealand name suppression orders threatened the fair trial rights for defendants. Meanwhile, the Otago Daily Times editorialised that the Millane murder case highlighted the fact that women were statistically more likely to be victims of violent crimes than men, according to the New Zealand Police Statistics Database. In late February 2020, The Guardian Sian Norris described using "rough sex" as a murder defence as "grotesque victim blaming."
Trial
The trial began on 4 November 2019 with the selection of the jury. The defendant reaffirmed his earlier not guilty plea, with proceedings expected to last five weeks. The prosecution led by Crown solicitor Brian Dickey argued that the defendant had strangled Millane to death following a Tinder date. The Crown also testified that, after killing her, the defendant conducted several Internet searches on how to how to dispose of bodies as well as viewing pornography. Dickey also said the man calmly and callously disposed of Millane's body and other evidence, and then created a "labyrinth of storytelling and lies" to cover his tracks.Three female witnesses, whom the defendant had also met through Tinder, testified that the defendant liked masochistic and bondage sex including choking. The Crown also presented security camera footage of the defendant and Millane, including the defendant renting a carpet cleaning machine at the Countdown supermarket in Quay Street. A Crown expert witness pathologist Simon Stables testified that a postmortem examination of Millane's body had found bruising consistent with someone who had been restrained and asphyxiated. Millane's post-mortem blood alcohol concentration was measured at 106 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, over the legal driving limit of 50 mg per 100 mL.
The defence team led by Ian Brookie argued that Millane's death was the result of a consensual sexual "misadventure" between the defendant and Millane. They alleged that Millane had an interest in bondage and sado-masochism and had asked the defendant to choke her during a consensual sex game which went wrong. While acknowledging that the defendant had tried to hide and bury the victim's body, they contended that the defendant had panicked. The defence's expert witness pathologist Fintan Garavan contested the Crown's autopsy evidence, claiming that her injuries were consistent with a consensual sex act due to the lack of defensive wounds on Millane's body. Garavan also alleged that the victim's alcohol consumption could have contributed to her death. Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield also argued that the defendant's claiming to be wealthy and successful stemmed from his personal insecurity.
The trial lasted three weeks. The jury, which consisted of seven women and five men, returned a verdict of guilty on 22 November after deliberating for five hours. The verdict was welcomed by Millane's parents David and Gillian. Several members of the jury reportedly wept following the verdict. In New Zealand, murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years except when such a sentence would be manifestly unjust. Judges have discretion to order a longer non-parole period.
On 21 February 2020, the defendant, whose identity remains suppressed, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. On 18 March, it was reported that the defendant was appealing his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal.