Man accused of killing Brit backpacker Grace Millane pleads not guilty

The 27-year-old man appeared in Auckland’s High Court on Wednesday
PA
Sophie Williams16 January 2019

The man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane in New Zealand has pleaded not guilty.

The 27-year-old man appeared in Auckland’s High Court on Wednesday (NZ time) and is now expected to stand trial on November 4.

He appeared for 10 minutes and spoke only to answer to the charge of murder. The ban on identifying the man in New Zealand remains in place until the end of this month.

Twenty-two-year-old Grace was found dead in a forest west of Auckland in December.

The funeral of Grace Millane at Brentwood Cathedral in Essex
Rex Features

Police initially launched a missing person inquiry for the University of Lincoln graduate after her parents became concerned that she did not reply to birthday wishes sent on December 2.

Since arriving in New Zealand from Peru on November 20, she had been in near-daily contact with her family, officers said.

The last confirmed sighting of Ms Millane, from Essex, was at 9.41pm on December 1, at the Citylife Hotel, when she was seen with a "male companion".

Following the graduate’s death, her family released a statement in which they said “in some way she will forever be a Kiwi.”

Her family said: "Grace went off to travel the world in mid-October and arrived in New Zealand on the 20th November.

"By the amount of pictures and messages we received, she clearly loved this country, its people and the lifestyle.

"We all hope that what has happened to Grace will not deter even one person from venturing out into the world and discovering their own OE (overseas experience)."

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern gave an emotional apology to Ms Millane's family after her death, saying: "Your daughter should have been safe here, and she wasn't, and I'm sorry for that."

"I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they would be experiencing and feeling right now."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT