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Grace Millane's family say her killer's sentencing 'won't bring closure'

Photo credit: Shutterstock - Shutterstock
Photo credit: Shutterstock - Shutterstock

From Cosmopolitan

Grace Millane had the world at her feet when her life was taken by a 27-year-old old man in New Zealand in December 2018.

The backpacker, from Wickford, Essex, was on a Tinder date in Auckland on the night before her 22nd birthday when she was brutally murdered by the man she had spent the evening with. A trial found her assailant guilty in November 2019.

Her killer is due to be sentenced tomorrow morning New Zealand time (this evening in the UK), but her grieving family have said that the punishment won't bring closure for them.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Grace's cousin, Hannah O'Callaghan, said: "The sentence will not change the fact that Grace is gone."

Asked whether the family felt as if this week was a big week, or marked a chapter ending, she said: "No. Every week is going to be a big week. It's not closure."

What has given the family a sense of catharsis, though, is the project they've set up to collect handbags and toiletries to help support victims of domestic abuse.

The campaign is called Love Grace x, and so far, more than 1,000 bags have been donated in the UK. There are appeals in New Zealand and North America, too.

Photo credit: Rex
Photo credit: Rex

In October 2019, O'Callaghan, said: "A lot of women leave home without anything, they pack for their children but not for themselves. Whilst they get given the necessities, they don't have the luxuries.

"All of us have a handbag with everything in and we thought 'what a perfect thing for them to have'. It helps that Grace loved a handbag as well.

"It's brought us together as a family in a time of grief. We're all talking together, we're remembering Grace, we're talking about day-to-day life."

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