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The mother of a British backpacker brutally murdered during what her killer claimed was ‘rough sex’ has revealed she never speaks the man’s name.
Grace Millane, 21, was strangled to death in Auckland, New Zealand, during December 2018 by Tinder date Jesse Shane Kempson, who hid her body in West Auckland’s forested Waitākere Ranges, where it lay undiscovered for eight days.
Kempson, who received a life sentence with a non-parole period of 17 years in 2020, said he strangled Grace in a CBD hotel while the pair were engaged in consensual ‘rough sex’.
Grace’s mother Gillian Millane has told The Extraordinary Ordinary podcast that she has banished Kempson from her thoughts while agonisingly putting her shatter life back together.
‘I don’t think about him, I don’t care what happens to him,’ she said.
‘He came into our life and destroyed our family. I don’t care about his name, I don’t care about him.’
Grace Millane was 21 at the time of her death and was only staying in New Zealand for two weeks while backpacking
Gillian Millane (pictured left with husband David Millane) has opened up about the death of her backpacker daughter at the hands of a Tinder date in New Zealand
Gillian described the trial as ‘horrendous’ and said she had to sit in a courtroom day after day ‘while they’re annihilating your daughter’.
She said her daughter, who had only recently graduated from a course in marketing and advertising, had always dreamt of travelling to places like New Zealand.
Grace was only spending two weeks in New Zealand after a six-week period in South America.
During an initial three-week trial of Kempson in 2019 Grace’s dad David Millane was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that spread to his brain with the condition claimed his life in November of the following year.
‘That was another disastrous Christmas and New Year,’ Gillian, who had survived a bout with breast cancer shortly before Grace’s murder.
Following the dual deaths Gillian told the podcast she was ‘in such a dark, lonely place and I pushed everybody away’.
Trying to find your path on this road of grief is a very difficult thing to do,’ she said.
‘You get to a point when you realise that you’re the only one that can get you out of there.’
Gillian is now heavily involved with charites such as White Ribbon that ‘raise awareness about the importance of respecting and protecting the rights and safety of individuals’.
Jesse Kempson received a lift sentence for the death of Grace Millane, who he strangled in an Auckland motel before hiding the body in bushland
Grace Millane, 21, was strangled to death in Auckland, New Zealand, during December 2018 by Tinder date Jesse Shane Kempson (pictured together), who hid her body in West Auckland’s forested Waitākere Ranges, where it lay undiscovered for eight days
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‘I can say that my toes are always in the darkness and sometimes my feet and waist but my head is probably more in the sun now,’ she said.
In October 2020, Kempson was also convicted on eight charges relating to offending against a former partner.
The charges included sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, threatening to kill, assault with a weapon and male assaults female.
In November 2020, he was convicted on one charge of sexually violating another woman, another British tourist, in an unrelated incident.
Kempson received a total sentence of 11 years’ imprisonment over the new charges, to be served concurrently with his life sentence.
‘You have no reason to convict me,’ Kempson yelled at trial judge Justice Geoffrey Venning from the dock after his sentence was finalised.
Grace’s mother Gillian Millane has told The Extraordinary Ordinary podcast that she has banished Kempson from her thoughts while agonisingly putting her shatter life back together. Pictured: Grace Millane
‘I can’t wait for the Court of Appeal to overturn you, mate. You’re full of s***.’
The 31-year-old appealed his sentences last year but the case was dismissed by New Zealand’s Court of Appeal
In March the judgment of Justice David Gendall was released and included the reasons for overturning the appeal.
‘We find that neither of the individual sentences imposed contained any error, nor is the total cumulative sentence of 11 years’ imprisonment manifestly excessive,’ Justice Gendall ruled.
‘Both appeals against sentence are also dismissed.’
