![\"Grace](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/AC54\/production\/_109561144_grace5.jpg\")
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Ms Millane, from Wickford, Essex, was found in the mountainous Wait\u0101kere Ranges a week later.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said post-mortem examinations found bruises “consistent with restraint” on her body, and that she had been strangled.<\/p>\n
On the night of her death, the court heard, the defendant “wasn’t distressed or concerned by her death”, and set about making plans to dispose of her remains.<\/p>\n
He “sexualised” the killing by searching for pornography, stopping at one point to take lewd photos of her corpse, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
The following day, he went on a Tinder date with another woman while the body of Ms Millane remained in the hotel room.<\/p>\n
He had bought a second suitcase in a bid to cover his tracks, as well as cleaning products and a shovel, jurors heard.<\/p>\n
The defendant did not give evidence in his defence.<\/p>\n
A ‘pathological liar’: The killer’s step-brother speaks out<\/h2>\n
Following the verdict, the step-brother of the murderer spoke to television station TVNZ reporter Paul Hobbs.<\/p>\n
The man, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, said he initially thought Miss Millane’s death could have been an accident but when he saw the timeline of events, his view changed.<\/p>\n
His step-brother, he said, was “a pathological liar that lies over pointless things and continues to lie until the point where he’s got no out – absolutely no out – and then he just breaks down and cries and runs away.<\/p>\n
“It’s just absolutely terrible that a life had to be lost because of it.”<\/p>\n
He said he did not think his step-brother intended to kill Grace, but said: “In that moment he just kept going\u2026 and he took Grace’s life.”<\/p>\n
In an interview with police, shown during the trial, the defendant was seen to break down in tears.<\/p>\n
“His tears, to me, they’re more tears for himself.”<\/p>\n
Apologising to the Millane family, he added: “I’m just so, so incredibly sorry for their loss.<\/p>\n
“To know it’s one of our family members – even though it’s not our actions – it’s very difficult, and I can’t imagine the pain and hurt and what [the Millane family] had to go through for a court hearing\u2026 to me that’s all because he doesn’t have any shred of a decent human being inside him, and couldn’t just confess to the fact he murdered her.”<\/p>\n
Ms Millane’s death prompted an outpouring of public grief in New Zealand with the country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern apologising to her family.<\/p>\n
The University of Lincoln graduate had been on a round-the-world trip, travelling in New Zealand for two weeks after spending six weeks in South America.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"