Grace Millane’s killer was ‘quite taken by morbidity’ says woman who went on date with him day after murder

Grace Millane‘s killer was “quite taken by morbidity” and tested the “most believable” theories for her death, another woman who went on a date with him hours after the murder has said.

In a column for Newshub, the woman, who gave evidence during the trial, described going on a date with the 27-year-old man, who has not yet been named, on 2 December after they met on dating site Tinder.

A day before, he had gone on a date with British backpacker Ms Millane and killed her either that night or in the early hours of the next morning, the day of her 22nd birthday.

“My instincts told me something was not right with this man and, while it took me a long time to write this, I want to share my experience so other women can remove themselves from situations they feel unsafe in,” the woman wrote.

The woman said she was struck during their date in the Auckland suburb of Ponsonby by how clean the killer looked, his “huge eyes” and how “intense” he became when talking about venomous snakes.

She said the man referred to buying a suitcase – in which Ms Millane’s body was later found buried in a shallow grave outside Auckland – but was frustrated it was not large enough to fit his sport equipment.

The killer mentioned his best friend, a Crown prosecutor, was moving from Sydney to Auckland, which interested his date, who referred to her previous career as a court reporter, including on a murder trial.

He then said something that seemed strange to her: “It’s funny how guys can make one wrong move and go to jail for the rest of their lives.”

He continued: “I heard of this guy whose partner asked to have rough sex with him involving some sort of strangulation and suffocation but it went wrong and the guy couldn’t revive her and she died. He got done for manslaughter but it was really tough for him to see this woman he loved dying.”

She wrote: “In hindsight, it was as if he was using this date to process what he’d done in a rather roundabout way – his brain needed to get it out but his mouth held him back.

“Was he testing theories on me to see which version seemed most believable?”

The woman said she was careful to never leave her drink with the killer, adding: “For some reason, I felt like he was the type of guy who would spike it. I felt bad for thinking that though.”

As they left the venue she lied to him about the location of her car because she “felt unsafe with him”.

The 27-year-old man, whose name is protected by a court order, was found guilty on 22 November of strangling Ms Millane.

The jury of seven women and five men returned a unanimous verdict after just five hours’ deliberation at Auckland High Court.

The Crown successfully argued the man strangled her and shoved her body inside a suitcase before burying her in a forested area outside Auckland.

He will be sentenced on 21 February, 2020 and faces life in prison with a minimum of 10 years without parole.