Millane killer lodges appeal
The man convicted of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane is appealing his conviction and prison sentence.
The 28-year-old, who still has name suppression, has a new lawyer – Rachael Reed QC.
A spokeswoman for Crown Law said a date for the appeal hearing had not yet been set.
Stuff applied to the Court of Appeal for the notice of appeal but Jus- tice Murray Gilbert declined the application and did not give reasons. Reed declined to comment and the grounds for the appeal are not known.
The killer’s former lawyers, Ian Brookie and Ron Mansfield, told Stuff it was sometimes beneficial to have another lawyer review a case and come at it with fresh eyes. ‘‘That has been recommended to [our client] and has happened here, with our assistance,’’ the pair said.
The appeal comes a month after Millane’s killer was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 17 years.
Millane, 21, died sometime between December 1 and 2, 2018, after she went on a Tinder date with the man in central Auckland. At his trial in November 2019, the man denied murder and claimed Millane’s death was a tragic accident after the pair had rough sex at his apartment. However, the Crown said the man strangled Millane for 5-10 minutes before taking intimate photographs and watching pornography. In the following days he set about covering his tracks, including burying Millane’s body in the Waita¯ kere Ranges.
At the High Court at Auckland, the jury delivered a guilty verdict.
At the sentencing, Justice Simon Moore said Millane was vulnerable. ‘‘You were a large powerful man, she was diminutive ... you were in a position of total physical dominance.’’
Millane’s lifeless body was in the room when he searched and accessed pornographic sites, Justice Moore said. The killer’s sense of self-entitlement and his objectification of Millane’s body showed his high degree of callousness, the judge said.