Grace Millane murder trial shown CCTV of 21-year-old’s body stuffed in suitcase

A man accused of murdering a British tourist after rough sex has described how he had stuffed her body “half in, half out” of a suitcase.

A man accused of killing a 21-year-old British tourist in New Zealand after they went on a Tinder date has told a court how he went on a second date while the woman’s body was in his hotel bedroom but “couldn’t get through the beer” because he kept thinking about the death.

Jurors in Auckland have been shown CCTV of the moment the suspected killer smuggled Grace Millane’s body out of a hotel in a suitcase after allegedly strangling her to death in the room.

The 27-year-old man, who cannot be identified, has described how he wanted to “end it all” after he found Ms Millane dead after what he claimed was rough sex inspired by the book 50 Shades of Grey.

“There’s a dead person in my room. Waking up to it I was like ‘holy sh*t’,” he said during an interview that was played in court today.

He has admitted his date was dead and he disposed of the body but insisted he didn’t intentionally cause her death.

Grace Millane, from the UK, died the day before her 22nd birthday in New Zealand last December.

Property developer David Millane, 61, and his wife Gill, from Wickford in Essex, east of London, have sat through every day of the harrowing murder trial, hearing how their daughter died the night before her 22nd birthday, on December 1 last year.

The UK backpacker’s parents were seen wiping away tears in the public gallery as the clip was shown in court.

The footage shown in court showed the suspect using a hefty porter’s trolley to wheel two cases into a lift at a hotel in Auckland the next day.

Footage shown in court of the date Grace Millane went on with the 27-year-old accused of murdering her.

Grace Millane entering the lift in one of the last known images of her.

HOLD THROAT

The powerfully built man was first seen wheeling the trolley into the elevator at the CityLife hotel where he lived full time and going up to his $360-a-week room, The Sun reported.

Shortly afterwards, he returned with it laden with two suitcases, one of which he has since admitted contained university graduate Ms Millane’s naked body folded into the foetal position.

Minutes later he is seen emerging from the lift and pushing the trolley across the floor of the lobby.

During his trial today, the jury was shown police interviews of his version of events leading up to the death.

He said the pair met at Auckland’s SkyCity casino and went to several bars before returning to his hotel.

“We started having sex, at first it was just normal. It was very placid,” the New Zealand Herald reported the man as saying during the police interview.

He said she had brought up the adult novel 50 Shades of Grey, which includes descriptions of bondage.

He claimed she started biting him and asked him to bite her.

“I stopped at first and said, ‘Is this something you really want to do?’”

The accused claimed Ms Millane said: “We’re in the moment, let’s just go with it.”

The accused continued: “We started having more, I guess, violent sex.

“And then we kept going she told me to hold her arms tighter. And then she told me to hold her throat and go harder.”

The man said he went to the bathroom but fell asleep in the shower. When he woke he said it was dark and he believed Ms Millane had left the hotel.

“I woke up the next day and saw that she was lying on the floor, I saw that she had blood coming from her nose.

“I screamed, I yelled out at her. I tried to move her to see if she was awake.”

He said he didn’t call the police because he was “scared at how bad it looked”.

“I took a whole heap of tablets that I had,” he said.

“I realised she wasn’t alive and I just wanted to end it all. I didn’t believe what had happened. I was just terrified and scared.”

During the police interview he replied “yes” when asked if Ms Millane died in his company. But, he added, “I want her family to know that it wasn’t intentional.”

CCTV footage of the accused, in the hours after she was murdered, with a luggage trolley in a lift. Picture: NZ Police

The accused wheeling a trolley into a lift at the hotel. Picture: NZ Police

A suitcase found in the apartment of the 27-year-old man accused of murdering Grace Millane. Picture: Auckland City Police/PA

HALF-IN, HALF-OUT OF SUITCASE

On the Sunday, he went to New Zealand retailer The Warehouse and bought a suitcase.

“I just put the suitcase on the bed. And I think I left again,” he said in his police interview.

He then described how he initially hesitated to put Ms Millane’s body inside the bag.

“I couldn’t put her in it because it just didn’t seem right. It just didn’t seem right,” he said.

“So I left and Grace was half-in half-out of the suitcase at that stage. I couldn’t do it.”

That night, after buying cleaning products, the man said he messaged a friend to go for a drink as he “didn’t think it was real”.

That friend was another Tinder date with a former journalist who has also given evidence.

After leaving the bar following the date, the woman went out of her way to avoid him after becoming “uncomfortable” at the suspect talking about women being accidentally killed during sex, The Sun reported.

She claimed he told her: “It’s crazy how guys can make one wrong move and go to jail for the rest of their life.”

She told jurors: “He said he had heard of a guy who asked his girlfriend to have rough sex with him including strangulation or suffocation and it had gone wrong and she had died in the process and he had got done for manslaughter.

“He was very intense, quite calm though. I just felt a bit uncomfortable. I changed the topic to travelling in the South Island.

“I felt uncomfortable with him so I just lied and said my car was in the opposite way.

“He wrote to me later by text saying, ‘Hey, I had a really great time would you like to do it again?’ and I said, ‘No, I wouldn’t.’”

The parents of Grace Millane, David and Gillian, arrive with Detective Inspector Scott Beard (left) at the Auckland High Court earlier this month. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

COULDN’T FINISH BEER

For his part, the accused said the drink was not helping.

“I couldn’t get through the beer I was drinking,” he said.

“I got back to CityLife and … I spewed up a few times because I couldn’t put Grace in the bag. All I could think about was what we shared the night before.

“And then I put her in the bag. And the whole time I just kept saying I’m sorry.”

The trial has already heard claims he used the case to transport Ms Millane’s body in a car to remote woodland where he buried it in a shallow grave.

Jurors were also shown images of the shocking moment detectives found the suitcase with Ms Millane’s body inside buried in a wooded area outside Auckland.