{"id":16647,"date":"2020-02-20T18:33:26","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T23:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=16647"},"modified":"2020-02-20T18:33:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T23:33:26","slug":"grace-millane-murder-mum-confronts-killer-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2020\/02\/20\/grace-millane-murder-mum-confronts-killer-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace Millane murder: Mum confronts killer in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mother of a woman murdered in New Zealand has told her killer she thinks about “the terror and pain she must have experienced at your hand”.<\/p>\n

A 28-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been jailed for life for strangling Grace Millane while on a Tinder date in December 2018.<\/p>\n

Her mother Gillian Millane told the killer “she died terrified and alone in your room”.<\/p>\n

The man was sentenced at Auckland High Court to a minimum of 17 years in jail.<\/p>\n

Mrs Millane, speaking to the court via a video-link and next to a picture of her 21-year-old daughter, told the man she had wanted to take her own life because of the pain he had caused her.<\/p>\n

She said: “Grace wasn’t just my daughter. She was my friend. My very best friend.<\/p>\n

“I am absolutely heartbroken that you have taken my daughter’s future and robbed us of so many memories that we were going to create.<\/p>\n

“The tears I shed are never-ending at the thought of never having the chance to kiss my Grace goodbye.”<\/p>\n

Her daughter’s murderer held his head in his hands as he listened to the impact his “barbaric actions” have had on his victim’s family.<\/p>\n

Sentencing the man, Justice Simon Moore described the murderer’s actions after the killing, including searching for pornography, as “conduct that underscores a lack of empathy and sense of self-entitlement and objectification”.<\/p>\n

He said: “You are a large and powerful man. She was diminutive. You were in a position of total physical dominance.”<\/p>\n

But he also stated the defence should not have been criticised on social media for pursuing a defence that Ms Millane had died during a consensual sex act as, even though the jury found this was not the case, this was the defendant’s right.<\/p>\n

The killer’s lawyer argued he should be given a minimum term of 11 years as “rehabilitation and reintegration remains a real prospect”.<\/p>\n

However, the judge said he could not see how the defendant could serve any less than 17 years.<\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/span>
Ms Millane was last seen alive on the eve of her 22nd birthday (Image: Millane Family)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ms Millane, from Wickford in Essex,\u00a0met her killer on the dating app<\/a>\u00a0while travelling in Auckland.<\/p>\n

The pair spent the evening drinking before returning to the man’s room in the CityLife hotel in central Auckland where he killed her.<\/p>\n

He then disposed of her body by burying it in a suitcase in the Wait\u0101kere Ranges, a mountainous area outside the city.<\/p>\n

He was found guilty of murder last year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/span>
Ms Millane’s brother said she “had a smile to light up the room”<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ms Millane’s brother Declan Millane told the court she “had a smile to light up the room”.<\/p>\n

He said: “As an older brother I felt a duty to protect my little sister. But there was nothing I could do. I was helpless and lost.<\/p>\n

“There is no reason behind this unspeakable act.”<\/p>\n

Det Insp Scott Beard, who led the investigation into Ms Millane’s murder, said Auckland City Police’s thoughts were with her family.<\/p>\n

He said: “The impact of losing their daughter on her birthday while alone in a foreign country has been significant and no matter what the outcome they will forever have a life sentence.<\/p>\n

“Even though their lives have been changed forever we hope with support from family and friends they can now try in some way to move forward with their lives.”<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mother of a woman murdered in New Zealand has told her killer she thinks about “the terror and pain she must have experienced at your hand”. A 28-year-old man, who cannot be named for […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,6],"tags":[6767,7015,6766,2860,6768],"class_list":{"0":"post-16647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"category-world","10":"tag-auckland","11":"tag-auckland-high-court","12":"tag-grace-millane","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-wickford","15":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16648,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647\/revisions\/16648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}