The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane (2023) Movie Script
There's so many families
who go through a situation
where their loved one
isn't found
or there's no answers,
and they never find out.
I couldn't let that happen.
We watched second-by-second,
minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour.
We couldn't afford
to miss anything.
You might miss that
crucial piece of evidence.
That could be the difference
between justice and injustice.
One lie can spread so quickly.
We had to find the truth.
Grace was travelling the world
after graduating
from university earlier this year.
Grace was on her big O-E,
first stop, South America,
where she joined
a trekking group,
then on to New Zealand.
She was excited
about her gap year away,
looking forward to her trip
around the world,
and she was planning to be back
for a family wedding
in June this year.
An outgoing,
gregarious character,
she got along with everyone.
What you saw is what
you got with her.
Grace was in regular contact
with the family while on her travels.
The last message they received,
she sent a photograph
of Christmas tree at the Sky Tower.
Police in New Zealand are continuing to search
for a missing
British backpacker.
It was Grace
Millane's 22nd birthday...
Has not been
in contact with her family
since 1st December.
Concerns are growing...
Police in
Auckland have been trying...
Her family say
she never returned
to the backpacker's hostel
where she...
Her family filed
a missing persons report
yesterday.
The question
of what happened
to Grace Millane...
Just hours before her 22nd birthday,
her family in Essex...
Speaking on TV
networks in New Zealand,
desperate for news
of her whereabouts.
We raised our
concerns on Monday, 3rd December.
We phoned the police
and the embassy in New Zealand,
and "We just urge you to
please... to bring my sister home."
We all sent
the usual "Happy birthday" and "Best wishes"
and "Hope you're having
a good time."
We woke up Monday,
we've noticed that
nothing had been replied,
and maybe it just
slipped her mind.
And then when it got
round to Tuesday,
alarm bells were ringing.
We get missing persons
complaints every day.
It's just that when you look
at this particular case,
an overseas tourist,
here by herself,
and on her birthday,
she hadn't contacted anybody,
and nobody had been able
to contact her,
she'd gone off the radar.
In New Zealand, you could
go over to one of the islands
and be out of phone contact.
You know, you hope that
that's what the case was.
So we had to do
a initial background.
We had to work out where
she had been staying,
look at her social media
profile
and then,
sort of, through the night,
contact the family and get
a lot more detail about her.
She was obviously a happy,
outgoing, lovely girl
from a really caring
and close-knit family,
and you could tell
their concern for her.
We know that Grace was really
active on her social media,
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
and then suddenly it stopped
I was born too late
In a world that doesn't care
Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker
with flowers in my hair
Any free
units around Pitt and K Road that could assist?
Probably.
We're coming from the bottom of Queen Street.
I knew the media
would be big,
and it was important
to get a team in place
and particularly
in Auckland City
where there was so much CCTV,
you need a big team,
'cos you've got to secure it,
collect it,
bring it in, view it,
and then, of course,
we were still looking into
the background of Grace,
the victimology.
Oh, look, it's important
if people think that they've seen Grace
that they contact us.
I know a lot of those will be
unconfirmed sightings,
but it's important that
we know,
'cos it could fit into
a jigsaw puzzle,
and that could be
one piece of the jigsaw.
It's New Zealand.
Things like that don't happen.
No one's used to an overseas
tourist going missing here
unless they're going hiking.
In which case, they can often
go missing for a few days
in the mountains because they
didn't reach the hut on time.
But in a city, no.
That doesn't happen.
What we do know is that
she had spent some time
up in the Bay of Islands.
You know, she's doing her OE,
so she's going to go to
the tourist destinations,
and we believe
that she's booked further travel in New Zealand
coming up in the next few days.
Our last confirmed sighting was
on Saturday, 1st December
at around 7:15 pm
near SkyCity.
At the time,
she was wearing a black dress
with some white,
possibly Converse shoes.
From where she went there,
we don't know,
but obviously, that's part
of our ongoing investigation.
Is she on
her own when she leaves?
At this stage, we believe so,
but we're just keeping
an open mind about that.
The first place that
we started looking for CCTV
was the Base Backpackers.
That's where Grace
had been staying,
so that's where we had
to start.
Well, the first thing
that you have is you have
the Facebook name
of Jesse Shane.
He was the last person
to have commented,
and so we needed
to contact him, speak to him
and find out if he was
the man on the CCTV.
So one of the staff had
messaged him and just said,
"We're looking to find Grace.
Can you contact us?"
On the Thursday morning,
he makes contact.
He says, "Yep, I met her.
Tinder date. I can't talk now.
I'll come in
to the police station
after I've finished work."
His full name was
Jesse Shane Kempson.
That police station
has since shut down,
but I can remember the rooms
and almost every detail
of most of the cases
investigated there...
especially this one.
Today's date is,
it's Thursday the 6th of December.
- Just written down
your details. - Yep.
That's in relation
to the young lady, Grace Millane.
- Yep.
- That right?
- Yep.
- And...
That's her there?
You recognize her? - Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so that's Grace.
She was 22
on the 2nd of December.
Just had her birthday.
Did you know that?
Yes, so we talked about that.
Yes.
Okay. Tell us about Grace.
So, I was talking to Grace
on Tinder.
Yeah.
Um, we'd matched on Friday.
I saw that we'd matched
the next day on the Saturday...
and then...
I saw a message
from her saying, "Hey."
So I messaged back saying,
"Hey, how are you?
How's your day going?"
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
We did the--
just the typical,
courteous "Hello.
How's everything going?"
And then we decided
that we were going up to Andy's Burger Bar.
Whose idea was it to go to
that particular burger place?
Me, because I knew--
I didn't initially know that she was real.
What do you mean?
Well, there's a lot of--
- So, have you heard of catfish?
- No.
So catfishing is where
someone uses your profile,
uses your photos and pretends
to be you and then meets,
and you're a completely
different person.
Right.
And it's happened
to a few people
I know in Australia,
erm, and it's all over--
it's all over the TV,
so I thought, you know,
if I meet at SkyCity,
at least I know that there's
lots of people around,
so if it is someone
that it's not,
then I can just walk away.
- Right.
- Yep.
- So you suggested SkyCity...
- SkyCity, yeah.
...to deal with
a potential catfish?
- Yeah.
- And what's the purpose of catfish?
Uh, people do it...
I don't know,
to catch people out.
A lot of men do it
against other men
to catch cheaters out,
so if they're friends
of the girlfriend of the man,
they do it to do all
of that sort of stuff.
They also do it because...
sometimes they want to be like
the other person
that they're not.
- Okay.
- And it's-- On Tinder,
it's all about
the way you look,
and so if they use
more endearing photos,
you're more likely
to swipe for them.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
How does-- How does meeting
in a public place, sort of, protect you
from meeting someone
who's not as good-looking as...
Well, there's security there,
so if she wasn't who
she said she was...
- Yeah.
- ...at least...
in my mind, I'd feel safe.
How did the evening pan out?
Hmm, yeah, pretty good.
We drunk a lot of cocktails
at-at
the burger bar,
and we were having
good conversations.
Yeah, that's us.
- Down there?
- Yep.
- Was that before or after?
- That is after.
Okay, and where are
you guys going now?
So she's going that way,
and I'm going across the street.
Where do you walk?
I go down Victoria Street
and then hang a left,
and I head towards the Viaduct.
And where did you actually go?
There's a pub on Queen Street.
It's, like, a sports bar.
How long were you there for? - A while.
It would've been 10:00,
maybe 11:00.
So you knew that she
was gonna be heading back
- to her hostel at this--
- I didn't--
I knew she was heading
towards that way.
- Yeah.
- Erm...
I assumed that she was
going to the bar upstairs.
- At the hostel?
- Yeah.
That's where I assumed
she was going.
- So did she invite you back?
- No.
- She didn't?
- No.
Was there any discussion
about the two of you
remaining together
at that point? - No.
How did the evening,
sort of, come to an end?
There was a hug
and a kiss on the cheek
and a "Thanks.
Nice meeting you."
And then I said,
"Let me know about tomorrow,"
and she said, "Okay."
And then she kept walking.
Where was the last
point that you saw her?
At that intersection.
Not-- Not here.
Probably further down-- further
down this way at the lights.
Yeah.
But that would've been
the last place I saw her.
- I tried to text her
the next day... - Yeah.
on Tinder,
but I'd been unmatched.
- Okay.
- And I was like,
"Oh, what's going on here?
Must have done the wrong thing."
While yes, Jesse Shane
became our person of interest,
you have to also
keep an open mind
as to what else
could have happened.
Police
in New Zealand say missing British backpacker
Grace Millane was last seen
with a male companion at a hotel...
Police in Auckland have interviewed people
staying at the hostel,
and they've recovered
some of Grace's belongings
from her room.
The longer this goes on,
the more concerning it is.
At the moment, we don't have
any evidence of foul play,
but we're keeping an open mind.
Police say there's
no evidence
of foul play
at this stage
in the disappearance...
Everyone's looking for Grace.
Everyone's searching.
Everyone's grasping
at straws to try and help
and provide some information.
Grace
Millane's father
is on his way to New Zealand
and is said to be distraught.
David Millane
arrived here this morning
hoping he'd have an update
on the whereabouts
of his daughter,
that hasn't come
this afternoon. Grace is still missing.
Good evening, everybody.
I'm David Millane, Grace's dad.
As you know, Grace has been
missing for several days.
And as a family,
we've been extremely concerned for her welfare.
Grace is a lovely,
outgoing, fun-loving,
family-orientated daughter.
Grace has never been
out of contact
for this amount of time.
She's usually in daily contact
with either her mother, myself,
her two brothers, members of
the family, or on social media.
Grace is on a year-long,
worldwide overseas experience.
Grace started
this travel journey in Peru in South America,
and at the end of this
was really looking forward
to the second leg
in New Zealand.
Maddy, come here.
Maddy, come here.
Two, three.
Hey, she chucked it so high!
So, on the
Saturday, you've departed...
- Mm-hm.
- ...walked down Queen Street
- to a pub somewhere
on Queen Street. - Yeah.
And you've spent
somewhere in the vicinity of two to three hours.
- Yep.
- At which point you've drunk,
- you think, ten beers.
- Yeah, I would say at least
- ten handles of beer.
- Ten handles?
Yeah.
And after that,
you don't remember anything.
Nah. After that, I remember
waking up the next day.
What time was that?
Erm, I woke up...
at about 9:00...
nine, ten o'clock.
How do you know that it was
around about 9:00 or 10:00 am?
Because my phone was
next to me, and that was--
I'm sure it was--
I'm sure it was 10:00. Yep.
With this young girl
missing, disappearing,
and we're very, very concerned
for her safety, obviously.
It's entirely possible
that she's been the victim of foul play.
- Okay.
- Do you understand what that means?
Yeah.
We've obviously got a lot
of people working on this.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
And science plays a huge part
in these jobs these days.
- Yeah.
- And obviously,
you've had
contact with her.
- Yeah.
- So what would your feelings be
about providing us with
a voluntary DNA sample
in the event that we can compare
that against something?
- Would you be happy?
- Yeah. 100%.
I mean, I know
I haven't done anything wrong,
- so I'm happy to do it.
- Okay.
Oh.
Okay.
Okay.
Homici-- Homicide.
Yeah.
Sorry, it's been
a bit of a while.
I'm just gonna hold off on that
DNA thing for the time being.
- Okay. Yeah.
- Okay?
Just back in the room
at 6:12 pm.
- Do you have a tattoo?
- Yes.
- May I see it?
- Yes.
Okay.
- Is that you?
- Yes.
- That's you?
- Yes.
Okay.
- Pictures in your hotel room...
- Yeah.
Okay?
That's on Sunday morning... - Mm-hm.
...at eight o'clock
in the morning, 8:14.
Okay.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
I'm sure--
Oh, I'm still sure it was...
ten o'clock.
I'm still sure of it.
Yeah.
Is...
there something you wanna ask?
- You were pretty specific...
- Yeah.
- ...about waking up...
- Yep.
...having been
in a drunken stupor
at nine or ten o'clock
in the morning.
Yeah.
That's you walking in
- with a suitcase...
- Mm-hm.
- ...at 8:14.
- Yep.
Yeah.
I've still got
that suitcase too.
- Whereabouts is it?
- It's in my room.
Okay.
There's quite a difference
between waking up at nine o'clock...
- Mm-mm.
- ...which is a pretty positive statement...
- Yep.
- ...and walking in...
...with a suitcase
that I still have in my room.
...clearly under your own
steam.
Yeah.
Okay.
Explain that.
I might have got
the times wrong,
but if you're assuming that
I was using that suitcase for something,
I've still got that
suitcase in my room.
And you guys can have it...
if that's what you're assuming.
You haven't told the truth
about being...
completely drunk
on Saturday night.
This is quite important, Jesse.
Okay?
And I'm being--
I'm being truthfully honest with you.
I've still got that bag...
in my-- in my room.
- What's in it?
- Nothing. Nothing's in it.
Where did it come from? - The Warehouse.
- Which warehouse?
- Atrium.
When did you buy it?
That day, because I was gonna
have to move all my stuff out.
That's eight o'clock
in the morning. - Yeah.
What did you buy it for?
To move all
of my stuff out of my room.
So hang on a minute.
Now you're saying
you went to The Warehouse
in the Atrium.
So you remember going to
The Warehouse in the Atrium?
Now that you've
showed me that, yeah.
Okay. Let's put the bag
to one side for a second.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
- Where had you been that night?
- I-- I-- I told you.
Okay, no, no.
That's not the case.
All right?
You've told-- You've told a lie.
He was very confident.
He came in a three-piece suit,
you know, waistcoat.
He looked immaculate.
He spoke very well,
very confidently,
but most of the stuff
that came out of his mouth were lies.
He was quite comfortable
to sit there, tell his story.
You know, "I went off one way,
she went off another way,
and I never saw her again."
'Cos he had been so
plausible, believable,
we suddenly had
something to say,
"Hang on.
You've just lied to us."
So that's when
you start thinking,
"Okay, what is he
not telling us?"
So while he was being
interviewed,
and particularly once
he had proved the lie,
we had to get a search warrant
for his room at
the CityLife Hotel.
We found out that he'd
been living in the hotel
and had been
for several months.
We don't have the power
to hold someone
for 48 hours and detain them.
We either have to have
the evidence to arrest and charge them
or we have to release them.
Through our investigations,
we have also identified
a location of interest.
We are conducting a scene
examination at this address.
It has now been six days
since Grace was last seen.
At this point, we hold
grave fears for her safety.
The police came in to see me.
The first thing they'd asked me
"Do I know a Jesse Kempson?"
And I said yes.
We'd just dismissed
him last week.
We called him into the office.
It was just my CEO and I,
and he said to him,
"You've been showing fraudulent behaviours,
making calls that don't exist.
We've seen you call
your own phone 100 times."
And to think that he would
get away with that, you know, it was all recorded.
And I think he caused...
a lot of drama where
it shouldn't have happened.
You know,
it doesn't make sense, and that's why it's toxic,
'cos you can't actually
pinpoint
what the situation is
and why it's happening.
My CEO just said,
"We will be dismissing you
with immediate effect."
That was Friday,
just before Grace's
disappearance.
We knew that he was lying.
We had a better profile
and picture of who he was.
We had advanced what
we knew from the CCTV.
We obviously had to monitor
and surveil Jesse Kempson,
so we knew where he was
when we went to pick him up
for the second interview.
We're at the Auckland Central Police Station.
It's Saturday,
8th December, 2018.
It's ten past 6:00
in the evening.
Can I ask you to please
introduce yourself?
I'm Jesse Shane Kempson. - Sure.
Whereabouts do you live, Jesse?
171 Queen Street, Room 308.
First thing
I'm gonna do is go through some previous events.
I approached you in the lobby
of the Attic Hostel at Wellesley Street.
You were sitting at a computer.
I took you aside
and advised you
there'd been some developments,
and I wished to speak
to you at the station.
At that point, we walked
down to a police car
that was parked
on Wellesley Street.
You've indicated that you're
willing to speak to us
about the events of last
Saturday.
- Is that correct?
- Yes.
Tell me what happened
last Saturday.
We had one final drink
at Andy's Burger Bar,
and then we decided to go to
the Mexican place
across the road.
Then we went down
to The Bluestone Room.
We had
a fair bit to drink there.
Most of the time
we were sitting there, we were just kissing.
I think we were both
into each other.
We kept drinking there.
I don't know what time
we left there exactly.
I was quite intoxicated
at that point, so was Grace.
The next thing
I remember after that
is being in the room with Grace.
We were kissing.
We were...
talking.
She asked me
to turn the TV off.
She started talking to me
aboutFifty Shades of Grey,
and she told me that there's
a few things she likes doing.
Started having sex,
at first, it was... erm...
it was just normal,
and then she...
asked me if we could
get into bondage.
I stopped at first
and said, "Is this something
you really wanna do?"
And, erm...
She--
She said, "We're in the moment.
Let's just go with it."
Erm...
And then...
I guess we--
we had sex for...
a little bit.
We swapped over.
I got on top.
We started...
having, I guess,
more violent sex.
We ended up on the floor,
erm...
and we kept going on the floor,
and she told me to
hold her arms tighter,
and then she told me to
hold her throat,
and then at that point,
we'd finished,
so I went into the shower,
because at that point,
I was sweating.
I was-- Yeah, just...
And then all I remember is
falling asleep in the shower...
erm...
and then waking up.
It would've been-- I can't
remember exactly when it was,
but it was still dark.
I crawled back into bed.
Initially, I thought Grace
had left...
and I was obviously
asleep in bed.
I woke up the next day,
and I 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,
and I tried to move her to
see if she was awake.
I-- I need-- I need to stop.
I need to go.
- Would you like some fresh air?
- Yeah, please. Please.
Can there be a short break
for some fresh air?
Take a break.
Thank you. - Okay.
6:28 pm We're just gonna step
out for a breath of fresh air.
I was...
I don't know. I was in shock.
I didn't know what to do.
I didn't...
believe what had happened.
I...
was just terrified and scared.
I went to The Warehouse
at the Atrium
and bought a suitcase.
I went back
and...
at first, I didn't know
what to do.
I just put the suitcase
on the bed.
I...
remember...
putting Grace in the suitcase.
I was...
I was just in shock
the whole time.
I couldn't put her in it...
because it just
didn't seem right...
because all I could think about
was what we shared
the night before.
And...
And then I--
I put her in the bag.
And the whole time, I just kept
saying, "I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
The investigation
into the disappearance of Grace Millane
has developed this evening.
Sadly, the evidence
we have gathered to this point of the inquiry
has established
that this is a homicide.
Grace's family have been
advised of this development,
and they are devastated.
The man is still being
spoken to at this point.
- Did you kill Grace Millane?
- No.
Okay.
Jesse Kempson,
you're under arrest for the murder of Grace Millane
- on or about 2nd December.
- Okay.
- You understand?
- Yep.
Are you ready to take us
to where she is?
Yeah.
Okay. It's 8:08 pm.
We'll end this recording.
Devastating
news tonight for the family of a British backpacker
who vanished while
travelling in New Zealand.
From the Kiwis I have spoken to,
there is this overwhelming
sense of hurt and shame
that this has happened
in our country.
And so, on behalf of
New Zealand,
I want to apologise
to Grace's family.
Your daughter should've been
safe here, and she wasn't,
and I'm sorry for that.
I can now advise that
a short time ago,
we located a body which
we believe to be Grace.
The formal identification
process will now take place,
however, based on the evidence
we have gathered
over the past few days,
we expect that this is Grace.
Obviously, this brings
the search for Grace to an end.
This is an unbearable time
for the Millane family,
and our hearts go out to them.
The investigation will
continue for some time yet.
The focus now is to piece
together exactly what happened
to a young girl who came to
New Zealand on her OE.
As the
country reels from the death of Grace Millane,
the killing of another woman
overnight has put the spotlight
on our shocking
domestic violence record.
Candlelight
vigils will be held around the country in solidarity
for Grace and all women
who have been killed in New Zealand.
Showing our
true Manawatu colours...
The Grace
Millane murder trial has got underway this morning
at the High Court in Auckland.
One family harm incident every four minutes...
To come
face-to-face for the first time with the man accused...
Court orders prevent us from showing or naming the 26...
The outcome of this trial hinges on what went on
in that CityLife Hotel.
Did the defendant
have murderous intent
or was it an accident?
We knew we had
the right person.
What we had to be able to prove
was there intent to kill.
Yes, there's no other
eyewitnesses here,
but evidentially
and circumstantially,
we believe we had
a strong case.
Jesse Shane Kempson,
you are charged
that between 1 December 2018
and 2 December 2018 at Auckland
murdered
Grace Emmie Rose Millane.
How do you plead,
guilty or not guilty?
Not guilty.
The mood in the
courtroom was very sombre.
There's that anticipation.
"Here we are. Now we're gonna
find out exactly what went on."
There's only one person
who can say what went on, and that was Kempson.
He'd chosen not
to give evidence himself and that's his right.
He relied on his
video interview.
One of the things
that I ensured
was that we watched
second-by-second,
minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour.
We couldn't afford
to miss anything
to see the full picture
of who Jesse Kempson is.
Grace Millane went back with
the defendant to his apartment.
She died there.
A couple of days later,
the defendant buried
her body on Scenic Drive, out in the Waitakeres.
None of this is in dispute.
What is in dispute
is how she died,
and the pathologist
who examined Miss Millane
will tell us that
the cause of death
was sustained pressure
to the neck.
It's obviously the Crown's
case that Miss Millane
was strangled by Mr Kempson,
and to kill somebody
by manual strangulation,
to kill them by strangling
them with your hands,
requires sustained
pressure to the neck.
The gentleman over here
at the back had, sort of,
had her...
under his grip for a total of...
what would be approximately
five to ten minutes,
at some point of which,
she lost consciousness
and would have become,
under his handhold,
unconscious
and limp and lifeless,
and he had to carry on.
And the point in time in
which you make the decision
as to whether he had
a murderous intent is when he carried on.
The defence says to you,
members of the jury, this is not a murder...
but an accident that occurred
during consensual
sexual activity...
as part of casual sex.
An act designed to enhance their
sexual pleasure went wrong,
and she died as a result.
An unintended consequence.
Put simply, this death
was an accident.
And you'd expect somebody,
wouldn't you,
immediately to call
for emergency assistance at that stage.
Not out of legal obligation,
not 'cos, you know,
they have to,
but because a person,
a human being,
has been hurt.
What actually does
Mr Kempson do?
His version is that after sex,
he went to the shower,
he fell asleep,
he woke up and went to bed.
The Crown says this isn't true.
We know that he wasn't
asleep in the shower.
Mr Kempson watches
some pornography.
So if it's right
that Miss Millane's dead,
because of the searches
that have been carried out
for the Waitakere Ranges
and the hottest fire,
then he wasn't distressed
by what occurred
or concerned by her death,
and you'll see for the balance
of that page
that he also then accesses
and looks at a number
of other pornographic websites.
And then between 1:46 and 1:49,
he took seven intimate photos
of Miss Millane's body.
To be perfectly clear on this,
the Crown is saying
she's dead at this point.
He has eroticised...
the death, and he has
memorialised it for himself
by taking his trophy
photographs.
When confronted
with the crisis of this unexpected,
unforeseen and unintended death,
the defendant freaked out.
People do things
when they're stressed,
when they're panicked,
and often a combination of both
under the influence of alcohol,
that they might later regret.
He may not have done
the right thing afterwards
because of a concern
no one would believe him.
One important source...
of evidence is the way
that Mr Kempson reacted
after Ms Millane died.
So, when I sat down with him,
it was, sort of,
you know, the usual,
"What have you
been up to today?"
And he told me that
he'd been trying to find
a really large sports bag,
because he plays softball
and he teaches children
a lot of softball.
But it was really hard
for him to find a bag
that could fit all
of his equipment in.
Like, he couldn't find one that
was big enough, and, erm...
But in the end,
he did manage to find one,
so that was a win for him,
he said, for the day.
And we talked a little bit
about his friends,
and he said, "Oh, all my
friends are police officers."
And he said, "Met them in
bars, and they just invited me back
to their houses for barbecues."
But he said they're having
a lot of trouble right now
because a lot of bodies
are going missing in the Waitakeres.
But police dogs can
only smell five feet deep,
so if you bury
a body more than five feet,
a police dog can't smell it.
So that was the major issue
facing policemen right now.
But then we also
talked about the fact
that I'd sat through
a murder trial,
and I saw this guy
be put away for life,
and then Jesse said,
"Yeah, it's just crazy how guys
can make one wrong move...
and be... put away for life."
I just thought it was
really, really strange.
I think I said I had to go,
and he actually had to
walk the same direction
that my car was in,
but I didn't feel comfortable
walking next to him,
so I actually just
walked down the street
and went somewhere else,
and he went
and walked to his car.
She was back in his apartment,
and I didn't know,
and I didn't-- I couldn't do anything about it.
9:31, Grace Millane
leaves the building...
folded,
contorted, however
you want to describe it,
in a suitcase.
Miss Millane initiated
and asked him
to put his hands around her neck
to give her sexual pleasure.
Miss Millane raised
and initiated
and led these activities
the restraint, the slapping,
the biting and the choking.
Of course, he was
not experienced enough
to actually know
how to do this properly
and what the dangers
actually were.
He's really just a young man
who's prepared to do
what his sexual partners
want him to do in the bedroom.
He simply did what
she asked him to do.
So on 3rd December,
that's the Monday,
he goes out early
in that morning.
He goes to Kumeu ITM
to get the spade.
What's interesting about Kumeu
is he goes through the pretence of buying some bolts.
He's diverting interest in
"the guy that bought a shovel."
So he's giving it a pretence.
He's covering his tracks.
On the way back from
burying Grace, he's barefooted.
He couldn't be seen
with muddy shoes.
Then he gets
his clothes dry-cleaned.
He went and bought
a second suitcase.
That's the level of planning,
because that sets up
the scenario for him
when he later speaks
to the police.
I've still got that
suitcase in my room.
And you guys can have it,
if that's what you're assuming.
He hoses the mud off
the car, then leaves the shovel,
making it harder for us
to find it.
He gets a call from
the police officer at 4:16 pm
asking him to get in contact
with New Zealand Police,
and that was followed
by him dumping those items in Albert Park.
So he must've still had
some stuff that he needed to get rid of
that linked him
to Grace Millane.
When you see
Jesse Kempson get into the lift
at the CityLife
that first time, there's no panic.
He buys the suitcase,
there's no panic.
Later on, he goes
and buys cleaning products,
there's no panic.
He rents a car, there's no panic.
He's in control.
He says he was panicking.
Somebody else would
have to explain to you
where it is that we can find
evidence that he has panicked.
He goes on that trip
at 5:19 am
on the morning of the 6th.
He goes out to Mission Bay
for a short period
with a shoulder bag,
with something in it that
must be really important.
The police never found
Grace Millane's phone.
Then he's gone on about
the necessary business,
to clean up,
and to break the
forensic linkage and chain
to him and the deceased,
and that is calculating,
and that is a man
who has murdered.
We had a couple of
staff, police staff,
at the CityLife Hotel,
and Kempson comes along.
And, of course, he sees
that the police are inside,
and he just calmly walks away,
walks back down the street
towards Queen Street.
One of the hotel staff saw him
and indicated
to the police staff,
"Oh, there... he is there."
The 6th of December
interview is important,
because that was an opportunity
for the defendant to tell the truth.
He went to that meeting,
conveyed that
he wished to tell them
everything that he knew
about Grace Millane.
That's her there?
You recognise her?
- Yep.
- Okay.
Now, if he was a person
who had accidentally
or inadvertently killed her,
this, if not previous,
was the opportunity
for him to say so...
isn't it? And he doesn't.
Okay. And where are
you guys going now?
So she's going that way,
and I'm going across the street.
He lies.
He lies and lies and lies.
He's pretty good at this.
The night he tried to murder me,
I wrote a letter in case
my body was found,
stating everything he did to me
that night, and I signed it,
because I honestly thought
I was gonna die.
I came home,
and I walked up the stairs.
He looked at me, and he said,
"I'm gonna kill you."
And just that fear
of being like,
"Fuck. I thought
it'd settled down."
It just kept going on.
"You're gonna die today.
I'm gonna murder you."
At some point,
he went and got that knife,
got me on the ground, and I was
in, like, a foetal position.
He was on top of me with
the knife by my throat.
And then he got me behind
the couch in a chokehold...
And I'll never forget, he whispered in my ear,
"Shh. Time to go to sleep."
So I knew after that night,
I had just accepted my fate
that I was gonna end up dead.
He needed power
and control at all times,
and when he didn't have it,
he would resort back
to those violent behaviours.
He slapped me.
He head-butted me.
He'd hold my throat
'till I couldn't breathe
while he was having sex
with me.
Whenever he was angry at me,
he'd go to the kitchen
and get the butcher knife
and hold it to my throat.
Those were tactics
to just remind me,
"I could kill you
if I choose to."
He had to be hurting you.
It excited him.
I am the only person that
will actually know deep down
what happened behind that door.
What I think happened
is that she said no to him,
and he lost it, 'cos he
doesn't like being told no.
And when I think of that,
that really gets me sad...
...'cos I know the fear
that she would've felt in those
final moments.
And that really saddens me.
It just should
never have happened,
and she didn't ask for that.
Kempson's ex-girlfriend
couldn't give evidence
at Grace's trial. She would
have her own trial against him.
So we found other women
that had been on Tinder dates with him.
Today,
the Crown called evidence from these other women
in an effort to prove
a pattern of behaviour.
One witness told the
court of fearing for her life
during their encounter
as her breathing was restricted.
The woman
said the man sat down,
putting his full weight
on her face.
Do you think that...
you may have overemphasised
or exaggerated
what took place that night
and how you really
felt about it?
Not at all.
That's not a pleasurable thing.
He would have seen me
kicking and writhing.
You can't say that I was
sitting there enjoying it.
I suggest he didn't
have hold of your arms
in any form of restraint at all.
After he moved off me,
after the struggling,
after the holding me down,
I said that I couldn't breathe.
It's just nonsense, isn't it?
Nothing bad did happen.
You weren't kicking
or struggling at all.
He didn't have
hold of your arms.
He didn't say any
of those things to you.
This is not a lie.
I'm not trying to justify anything.
I don't wanna be
telling my horrific story
in front of all you people,
but I am, and it's the truth,
and you can't take that away.
They victim-shamed her.
They made her feel like
a piece of shit all over again.
It wasn't bad enough
that Jesse had done it,
now professional lawyers are
making you feel worthless.
I don't care
if that's your job.
You don't degrade someone
over sexual violence
when a victim is trying to be
brave in front of her abuser.
The defence's tactic
was to undermine
and place the blame
on the women involved,
including Grace,
and this was echoed around
the world.
It was shocking to see
how quickly
people accepted this argument.
People were so quick
to judge and blame Grace.
If people are gonna use
that type of defence,
all it actually does
is repeatedly re-victimises
the victim
and the victim's family.
They just made her
out to be this minx that loved rough sex,
and I don't care if she did.
She didn't deserve that.
No one deserves that.
She was shamed
and blamed...
but she doesn't
consent to her murder.
It was Kempson's actions
that killed Grace.
Nothing else.
Kempson had told
us so many lies.
There's no evidence that actual
sexual intercourse took place.
We don't know that.
That's what he said, and everybody's assumed that.
But evidentially,
there is no evidence that that actually happened.
There's only one person
who can say what went on, and that was Kempson.
He didn't get up in the box.
He'd had his interviews
at the time
of the investigation.
Grace couldn't defend herself.
Many women have identified with Grace Millane's case.
Many have told media here
that what happened to her
could have happened to them,
could have happened to anybody,
and that they wanted
to be there for the final day in court.
There was
an eerie silence at the High Court in Auckland today
as the high-profile case
came to a close.
When the verdict
was read out,
probably the most emotional
courtroom I've ever been in.
Madam Foreman, please stand.
Members of the jury, have you
reached the unanimous verdict
that is one on which all 12
of you agree on charge
- or on the charge of murder?
- We have.
Do you find the defendant,
Jesse Shane Kempson,
guilty or not guilty?
Guilty.
"The verdict of murder today...
...will be welcomed
by every member
of the Millane family
and friends of Grace.
It will not reduce
the pain, the suffering
that we've had to endure
for over the past year.
Grace was taken away from us
in the most brutal fashion a year ago,
and our lives and family
have been ripped apart.
This will be with us for
the rest of our lives.
Grace was a beautiful, talented, loving daughter.
Grace was our sunshine,
and she will be missed forever.
Finally, we must return home
and try and pick up
the pieces of our lives
and day-to-day without
our beloved Grace."
Thank you all.
The family feel that Grace's
murderer has also killed David.
You know, the stress,
the cancer,
and he would have died
of a broken heart.
I will miss my darling, Grace,
until the last breath
in my body leaves me.
The laughter, the conversations,
the memories...
You will never be forgotten,
my darling.
I will do my utmost
to ensure that no other
family needs to go through what we have endured,
and to create a future without
male violence towards women.
What woman wants to be
strangled to death?
That's what I think. No woman
wants to be strangled to death.
He wasn't doing
what she wanted him to do.
He murdered her. Full-stop.
I've often said that
if it wasn't Grace, it was gonna be someone else...
and I still believe that.
who go through a situation
where their loved one
isn't found
or there's no answers,
and they never find out.
I couldn't let that happen.
We watched second-by-second,
minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour.
We couldn't afford
to miss anything.
You might miss that
crucial piece of evidence.
That could be the difference
between justice and injustice.
One lie can spread so quickly.
We had to find the truth.
Grace was travelling the world
after graduating
from university earlier this year.
Grace was on her big O-E,
first stop, South America,
where she joined
a trekking group,
then on to New Zealand.
She was excited
about her gap year away,
looking forward to her trip
around the world,
and she was planning to be back
for a family wedding
in June this year.
An outgoing,
gregarious character,
she got along with everyone.
What you saw is what
you got with her.
Grace was in regular contact
with the family while on her travels.
The last message they received,
she sent a photograph
of Christmas tree at the Sky Tower.
Police in New Zealand are continuing to search
for a missing
British backpacker.
It was Grace
Millane's 22nd birthday...
Has not been
in contact with her family
since 1st December.
Concerns are growing...
Police in
Auckland have been trying...
Her family say
she never returned
to the backpacker's hostel
where she...
Her family filed
a missing persons report
yesterday.
The question
of what happened
to Grace Millane...
Just hours before her 22nd birthday,
her family in Essex...
Speaking on TV
networks in New Zealand,
desperate for news
of her whereabouts.
We raised our
concerns on Monday, 3rd December.
We phoned the police
and the embassy in New Zealand,
and "We just urge you to
please... to bring my sister home."
We all sent
the usual "Happy birthday" and "Best wishes"
and "Hope you're having
a good time."
We woke up Monday,
we've noticed that
nothing had been replied,
and maybe it just
slipped her mind.
And then when it got
round to Tuesday,
alarm bells were ringing.
We get missing persons
complaints every day.
It's just that when you look
at this particular case,
an overseas tourist,
here by herself,
and on her birthday,
she hadn't contacted anybody,
and nobody had been able
to contact her,
she'd gone off the radar.
In New Zealand, you could
go over to one of the islands
and be out of phone contact.
You know, you hope that
that's what the case was.
So we had to do
a initial background.
We had to work out where
she had been staying,
look at her social media
profile
and then,
sort of, through the night,
contact the family and get
a lot more detail about her.
She was obviously a happy,
outgoing, lovely girl
from a really caring
and close-knit family,
and you could tell
their concern for her.
We know that Grace was really
active on her social media,
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
and then suddenly it stopped
I was born too late
In a world that doesn't care
Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker
with flowers in my hair
Any free
units around Pitt and K Road that could assist?
Probably.
We're coming from the bottom of Queen Street.
I knew the media
would be big,
and it was important
to get a team in place
and particularly
in Auckland City
where there was so much CCTV,
you need a big team,
'cos you've got to secure it,
collect it,
bring it in, view it,
and then, of course,
we were still looking into
the background of Grace,
the victimology.
Oh, look, it's important
if people think that they've seen Grace
that they contact us.
I know a lot of those will be
unconfirmed sightings,
but it's important that
we know,
'cos it could fit into
a jigsaw puzzle,
and that could be
one piece of the jigsaw.
It's New Zealand.
Things like that don't happen.
No one's used to an overseas
tourist going missing here
unless they're going hiking.
In which case, they can often
go missing for a few days
in the mountains because they
didn't reach the hut on time.
But in a city, no.
That doesn't happen.
What we do know is that
she had spent some time
up in the Bay of Islands.
You know, she's doing her OE,
so she's going to go to
the tourist destinations,
and we believe
that she's booked further travel in New Zealand
coming up in the next few days.
Our last confirmed sighting was
on Saturday, 1st December
at around 7:15 pm
near SkyCity.
At the time,
she was wearing a black dress
with some white,
possibly Converse shoes.
From where she went there,
we don't know,
but obviously, that's part
of our ongoing investigation.
Is she on
her own when she leaves?
At this stage, we believe so,
but we're just keeping
an open mind about that.
The first place that
we started looking for CCTV
was the Base Backpackers.
That's where Grace
had been staying,
so that's where we had
to start.
Well, the first thing
that you have is you have
the Facebook name
of Jesse Shane.
He was the last person
to have commented,
and so we needed
to contact him, speak to him
and find out if he was
the man on the CCTV.
So one of the staff had
messaged him and just said,
"We're looking to find Grace.
Can you contact us?"
On the Thursday morning,
he makes contact.
He says, "Yep, I met her.
Tinder date. I can't talk now.
I'll come in
to the police station
after I've finished work."
His full name was
Jesse Shane Kempson.
That police station
has since shut down,
but I can remember the rooms
and almost every detail
of most of the cases
investigated there...
especially this one.
Today's date is,
it's Thursday the 6th of December.
- Just written down
your details. - Yep.
That's in relation
to the young lady, Grace Millane.
- Yep.
- That right?
- Yep.
- And...
That's her there?
You recognize her? - Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so that's Grace.
She was 22
on the 2nd of December.
Just had her birthday.
Did you know that?
Yes, so we talked about that.
Yes.
Okay. Tell us about Grace.
So, I was talking to Grace
on Tinder.
Yeah.
Um, we'd matched on Friday.
I saw that we'd matched
the next day on the Saturday...
and then...
I saw a message
from her saying, "Hey."
So I messaged back saying,
"Hey, how are you?
How's your day going?"
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
We did the--
just the typical,
courteous "Hello.
How's everything going?"
And then we decided
that we were going up to Andy's Burger Bar.
Whose idea was it to go to
that particular burger place?
Me, because I knew--
I didn't initially know that she was real.
What do you mean?
Well, there's a lot of--
- So, have you heard of catfish?
- No.
So catfishing is where
someone uses your profile,
uses your photos and pretends
to be you and then meets,
and you're a completely
different person.
Right.
And it's happened
to a few people
I know in Australia,
erm, and it's all over--
it's all over the TV,
so I thought, you know,
if I meet at SkyCity,
at least I know that there's
lots of people around,
so if it is someone
that it's not,
then I can just walk away.
- Right.
- Yep.
- So you suggested SkyCity...
- SkyCity, yeah.
...to deal with
a potential catfish?
- Yeah.
- And what's the purpose of catfish?
Uh, people do it...
I don't know,
to catch people out.
A lot of men do it
against other men
to catch cheaters out,
so if they're friends
of the girlfriend of the man,
they do it to do all
of that sort of stuff.
They also do it because...
sometimes they want to be like
the other person
that they're not.
- Okay.
- And it's-- On Tinder,
it's all about
the way you look,
and so if they use
more endearing photos,
you're more likely
to swipe for them.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
How does-- How does meeting
in a public place, sort of, protect you
from meeting someone
who's not as good-looking as...
Well, there's security there,
so if she wasn't who
she said she was...
- Yeah.
- ...at least...
in my mind, I'd feel safe.
How did the evening pan out?
Hmm, yeah, pretty good.
We drunk a lot of cocktails
at-at
the burger bar,
and we were having
good conversations.
Yeah, that's us.
- Down there?
- Yep.
- Was that before or after?
- That is after.
Okay, and where are
you guys going now?
So she's going that way,
and I'm going across the street.
Where do you walk?
I go down Victoria Street
and then hang a left,
and I head towards the Viaduct.
And where did you actually go?
There's a pub on Queen Street.
It's, like, a sports bar.
How long were you there for? - A while.
It would've been 10:00,
maybe 11:00.
So you knew that she
was gonna be heading back
- to her hostel at this--
- I didn't--
I knew she was heading
towards that way.
- Yeah.
- Erm...
I assumed that she was
going to the bar upstairs.
- At the hostel?
- Yeah.
That's where I assumed
she was going.
- So did she invite you back?
- No.
- She didn't?
- No.
Was there any discussion
about the two of you
remaining together
at that point? - No.
How did the evening,
sort of, come to an end?
There was a hug
and a kiss on the cheek
and a "Thanks.
Nice meeting you."
And then I said,
"Let me know about tomorrow,"
and she said, "Okay."
And then she kept walking.
Where was the last
point that you saw her?
At that intersection.
Not-- Not here.
Probably further down-- further
down this way at the lights.
Yeah.
But that would've been
the last place I saw her.
- I tried to text her
the next day... - Yeah.
on Tinder,
but I'd been unmatched.
- Okay.
- And I was like,
"Oh, what's going on here?
Must have done the wrong thing."
While yes, Jesse Shane
became our person of interest,
you have to also
keep an open mind
as to what else
could have happened.
Police
in New Zealand say missing British backpacker
Grace Millane was last seen
with a male companion at a hotel...
Police in Auckland have interviewed people
staying at the hostel,
and they've recovered
some of Grace's belongings
from her room.
The longer this goes on,
the more concerning it is.
At the moment, we don't have
any evidence of foul play,
but we're keeping an open mind.
Police say there's
no evidence
of foul play
at this stage
in the disappearance...
Everyone's looking for Grace.
Everyone's searching.
Everyone's grasping
at straws to try and help
and provide some information.
Grace
Millane's father
is on his way to New Zealand
and is said to be distraught.
David Millane
arrived here this morning
hoping he'd have an update
on the whereabouts
of his daughter,
that hasn't come
this afternoon. Grace is still missing.
Good evening, everybody.
I'm David Millane, Grace's dad.
As you know, Grace has been
missing for several days.
And as a family,
we've been extremely concerned for her welfare.
Grace is a lovely,
outgoing, fun-loving,
family-orientated daughter.
Grace has never been
out of contact
for this amount of time.
She's usually in daily contact
with either her mother, myself,
her two brothers, members of
the family, or on social media.
Grace is on a year-long,
worldwide overseas experience.
Grace started
this travel journey in Peru in South America,
and at the end of this
was really looking forward
to the second leg
in New Zealand.
Maddy, come here.
Maddy, come here.
Two, three.
Hey, she chucked it so high!
So, on the
Saturday, you've departed...
- Mm-hm.
- ...walked down Queen Street
- to a pub somewhere
on Queen Street. - Yeah.
And you've spent
somewhere in the vicinity of two to three hours.
- Yep.
- At which point you've drunk,
- you think, ten beers.
- Yeah, I would say at least
- ten handles of beer.
- Ten handles?
Yeah.
And after that,
you don't remember anything.
Nah. After that, I remember
waking up the next day.
What time was that?
Erm, I woke up...
at about 9:00...
nine, ten o'clock.
How do you know that it was
around about 9:00 or 10:00 am?
Because my phone was
next to me, and that was--
I'm sure it was--
I'm sure it was 10:00. Yep.
With this young girl
missing, disappearing,
and we're very, very concerned
for her safety, obviously.
It's entirely possible
that she's been the victim of foul play.
- Okay.
- Do you understand what that means?
Yeah.
We've obviously got a lot
of people working on this.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
And science plays a huge part
in these jobs these days.
- Yeah.
- And obviously,
you've had
contact with her.
- Yeah.
- So what would your feelings be
about providing us with
a voluntary DNA sample
in the event that we can compare
that against something?
- Would you be happy?
- Yeah. 100%.
I mean, I know
I haven't done anything wrong,
- so I'm happy to do it.
- Okay.
Oh.
Okay.
Okay.
Homici-- Homicide.
Yeah.
Sorry, it's been
a bit of a while.
I'm just gonna hold off on that
DNA thing for the time being.
- Okay. Yeah.
- Okay?
Just back in the room
at 6:12 pm.
- Do you have a tattoo?
- Yes.
- May I see it?
- Yes.
Okay.
- Is that you?
- Yes.
- That's you?
- Yes.
Okay.
- Pictures in your hotel room...
- Yeah.
Okay?
That's on Sunday morning... - Mm-hm.
...at eight o'clock
in the morning, 8:14.
Okay.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
I'm sure--
Oh, I'm still sure it was...
ten o'clock.
I'm still sure of it.
Yeah.
Is...
there something you wanna ask?
- You were pretty specific...
- Yeah.
- ...about waking up...
- Yep.
...having been
in a drunken stupor
at nine or ten o'clock
in the morning.
Yeah.
That's you walking in
- with a suitcase...
- Mm-hm.
- ...at 8:14.
- Yep.
Yeah.
I've still got
that suitcase too.
- Whereabouts is it?
- It's in my room.
Okay.
There's quite a difference
between waking up at nine o'clock...
- Mm-mm.
- ...which is a pretty positive statement...
- Yep.
- ...and walking in...
...with a suitcase
that I still have in my room.
...clearly under your own
steam.
Yeah.
Okay.
Explain that.
I might have got
the times wrong,
but if you're assuming that
I was using that suitcase for something,
I've still got that
suitcase in my room.
And you guys can have it...
if that's what you're assuming.
You haven't told the truth
about being...
completely drunk
on Saturday night.
This is quite important, Jesse.
Okay?
And I'm being--
I'm being truthfully honest with you.
I've still got that bag...
in my-- in my room.
- What's in it?
- Nothing. Nothing's in it.
Where did it come from? - The Warehouse.
- Which warehouse?
- Atrium.
When did you buy it?
That day, because I was gonna
have to move all my stuff out.
That's eight o'clock
in the morning. - Yeah.
What did you buy it for?
To move all
of my stuff out of my room.
So hang on a minute.
Now you're saying
you went to The Warehouse
in the Atrium.
So you remember going to
The Warehouse in the Atrium?
Now that you've
showed me that, yeah.
Okay. Let's put the bag
to one side for a second.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
- Where had you been that night?
- I-- I-- I told you.
Okay, no, no.
That's not the case.
All right?
You've told-- You've told a lie.
He was very confident.
He came in a three-piece suit,
you know, waistcoat.
He looked immaculate.
He spoke very well,
very confidently,
but most of the stuff
that came out of his mouth were lies.
He was quite comfortable
to sit there, tell his story.
You know, "I went off one way,
she went off another way,
and I never saw her again."
'Cos he had been so
plausible, believable,
we suddenly had
something to say,
"Hang on.
You've just lied to us."
So that's when
you start thinking,
"Okay, what is he
not telling us?"
So while he was being
interviewed,
and particularly once
he had proved the lie,
we had to get a search warrant
for his room at
the CityLife Hotel.
We found out that he'd
been living in the hotel
and had been
for several months.
We don't have the power
to hold someone
for 48 hours and detain them.
We either have to have
the evidence to arrest and charge them
or we have to release them.
Through our investigations,
we have also identified
a location of interest.
We are conducting a scene
examination at this address.
It has now been six days
since Grace was last seen.
At this point, we hold
grave fears for her safety.
The police came in to see me.
The first thing they'd asked me
"Do I know a Jesse Kempson?"
And I said yes.
We'd just dismissed
him last week.
We called him into the office.
It was just my CEO and I,
and he said to him,
"You've been showing fraudulent behaviours,
making calls that don't exist.
We've seen you call
your own phone 100 times."
And to think that he would
get away with that, you know, it was all recorded.
And I think he caused...
a lot of drama where
it shouldn't have happened.
You know,
it doesn't make sense, and that's why it's toxic,
'cos you can't actually
pinpoint
what the situation is
and why it's happening.
My CEO just said,
"We will be dismissing you
with immediate effect."
That was Friday,
just before Grace's
disappearance.
We knew that he was lying.
We had a better profile
and picture of who he was.
We had advanced what
we knew from the CCTV.
We obviously had to monitor
and surveil Jesse Kempson,
so we knew where he was
when we went to pick him up
for the second interview.
We're at the Auckland Central Police Station.
It's Saturday,
8th December, 2018.
It's ten past 6:00
in the evening.
Can I ask you to please
introduce yourself?
I'm Jesse Shane Kempson. - Sure.
Whereabouts do you live, Jesse?
171 Queen Street, Room 308.
First thing
I'm gonna do is go through some previous events.
I approached you in the lobby
of the Attic Hostel at Wellesley Street.
You were sitting at a computer.
I took you aside
and advised you
there'd been some developments,
and I wished to speak
to you at the station.
At that point, we walked
down to a police car
that was parked
on Wellesley Street.
You've indicated that you're
willing to speak to us
about the events of last
Saturday.
- Is that correct?
- Yes.
Tell me what happened
last Saturday.
We had one final drink
at Andy's Burger Bar,
and then we decided to go to
the Mexican place
across the road.
Then we went down
to The Bluestone Room.
We had
a fair bit to drink there.
Most of the time
we were sitting there, we were just kissing.
I think we were both
into each other.
We kept drinking there.
I don't know what time
we left there exactly.
I was quite intoxicated
at that point, so was Grace.
The next thing
I remember after that
is being in the room with Grace.
We were kissing.
We were...
talking.
She asked me
to turn the TV off.
She started talking to me
aboutFifty Shades of Grey,
and she told me that there's
a few things she likes doing.
Started having sex,
at first, it was... erm...
it was just normal,
and then she...
asked me if we could
get into bondage.
I stopped at first
and said, "Is this something
you really wanna do?"
And, erm...
She--
She said, "We're in the moment.
Let's just go with it."
Erm...
And then...
I guess we--
we had sex for...
a little bit.
We swapped over.
I got on top.
We started...
having, I guess,
more violent sex.
We ended up on the floor,
erm...
and we kept going on the floor,
and she told me to
hold her arms tighter,
and then she told me to
hold her throat,
and then at that point,
we'd finished,
so I went into the shower,
because at that point,
I was sweating.
I was-- Yeah, just...
And then all I remember is
falling asleep in the shower...
erm...
and then waking up.
It would've been-- I can't
remember exactly when it was,
but it was still dark.
I crawled back into bed.
Initially, I thought Grace
had left...
and I was obviously
asleep in bed.
I woke up the next day,
and I 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,
and I tried to move her to
see if she was awake.
I-- I need-- I need to stop.
I need to go.
- Would you like some fresh air?
- Yeah, please. Please.
Can there be a short break
for some fresh air?
Take a break.
Thank you. - Okay.
6:28 pm We're just gonna step
out for a breath of fresh air.
I was...
I don't know. I was in shock.
I didn't know what to do.
I didn't...
believe what had happened.
I...
was just terrified and scared.
I went to The Warehouse
at the Atrium
and bought a suitcase.
I went back
and...
at first, I didn't know
what to do.
I just put the suitcase
on the bed.
I...
remember...
putting Grace in the suitcase.
I was...
I was just in shock
the whole time.
I couldn't put her in it...
because it just
didn't seem right...
because all I could think about
was what we shared
the night before.
And...
And then I--
I put her in the bag.
And the whole time, I just kept
saying, "I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
The investigation
into the disappearance of Grace Millane
has developed this evening.
Sadly, the evidence
we have gathered to this point of the inquiry
has established
that this is a homicide.
Grace's family have been
advised of this development,
and they are devastated.
The man is still being
spoken to at this point.
- Did you kill Grace Millane?
- No.
Okay.
Jesse Kempson,
you're under arrest for the murder of Grace Millane
- on or about 2nd December.
- Okay.
- You understand?
- Yep.
Are you ready to take us
to where she is?
Yeah.
Okay. It's 8:08 pm.
We'll end this recording.
Devastating
news tonight for the family of a British backpacker
who vanished while
travelling in New Zealand.
From the Kiwis I have spoken to,
there is this overwhelming
sense of hurt and shame
that this has happened
in our country.
And so, on behalf of
New Zealand,
I want to apologise
to Grace's family.
Your daughter should've been
safe here, and she wasn't,
and I'm sorry for that.
I can now advise that
a short time ago,
we located a body which
we believe to be Grace.
The formal identification
process will now take place,
however, based on the evidence
we have gathered
over the past few days,
we expect that this is Grace.
Obviously, this brings
the search for Grace to an end.
This is an unbearable time
for the Millane family,
and our hearts go out to them.
The investigation will
continue for some time yet.
The focus now is to piece
together exactly what happened
to a young girl who came to
New Zealand on her OE.
As the
country reels from the death of Grace Millane,
the killing of another woman
overnight has put the spotlight
on our shocking
domestic violence record.
Candlelight
vigils will be held around the country in solidarity
for Grace and all women
who have been killed in New Zealand.
Showing our
true Manawatu colours...
The Grace
Millane murder trial has got underway this morning
at the High Court in Auckland.
One family harm incident every four minutes...
To come
face-to-face for the first time with the man accused...
Court orders prevent us from showing or naming the 26...
The outcome of this trial hinges on what went on
in that CityLife Hotel.
Did the defendant
have murderous intent
or was it an accident?
We knew we had
the right person.
What we had to be able to prove
was there intent to kill.
Yes, there's no other
eyewitnesses here,
but evidentially
and circumstantially,
we believe we had
a strong case.
Jesse Shane Kempson,
you are charged
that between 1 December 2018
and 2 December 2018 at Auckland
murdered
Grace Emmie Rose Millane.
How do you plead,
guilty or not guilty?
Not guilty.
The mood in the
courtroom was very sombre.
There's that anticipation.
"Here we are. Now we're gonna
find out exactly what went on."
There's only one person
who can say what went on, and that was Kempson.
He'd chosen not
to give evidence himself and that's his right.
He relied on his
video interview.
One of the things
that I ensured
was that we watched
second-by-second,
minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour.
We couldn't afford
to miss anything
to see the full picture
of who Jesse Kempson is.
Grace Millane went back with
the defendant to his apartment.
She died there.
A couple of days later,
the defendant buried
her body on Scenic Drive, out in the Waitakeres.
None of this is in dispute.
What is in dispute
is how she died,
and the pathologist
who examined Miss Millane
will tell us that
the cause of death
was sustained pressure
to the neck.
It's obviously the Crown's
case that Miss Millane
was strangled by Mr Kempson,
and to kill somebody
by manual strangulation,
to kill them by strangling
them with your hands,
requires sustained
pressure to the neck.
The gentleman over here
at the back had, sort of,
had her...
under his grip for a total of...
what would be approximately
five to ten minutes,
at some point of which,
she lost consciousness
and would have become,
under his handhold,
unconscious
and limp and lifeless,
and he had to carry on.
And the point in time in
which you make the decision
as to whether he had
a murderous intent is when he carried on.
The defence says to you,
members of the jury, this is not a murder...
but an accident that occurred
during consensual
sexual activity...
as part of casual sex.
An act designed to enhance their
sexual pleasure went wrong,
and she died as a result.
An unintended consequence.
Put simply, this death
was an accident.
And you'd expect somebody,
wouldn't you,
immediately to call
for emergency assistance at that stage.
Not out of legal obligation,
not 'cos, you know,
they have to,
but because a person,
a human being,
has been hurt.
What actually does
Mr Kempson do?
His version is that after sex,
he went to the shower,
he fell asleep,
he woke up and went to bed.
The Crown says this isn't true.
We know that he wasn't
asleep in the shower.
Mr Kempson watches
some pornography.
So if it's right
that Miss Millane's dead,
because of the searches
that have been carried out
for the Waitakere Ranges
and the hottest fire,
then he wasn't distressed
by what occurred
or concerned by her death,
and you'll see for the balance
of that page
that he also then accesses
and looks at a number
of other pornographic websites.
And then between 1:46 and 1:49,
he took seven intimate photos
of Miss Millane's body.
To be perfectly clear on this,
the Crown is saying
she's dead at this point.
He has eroticised...
the death, and he has
memorialised it for himself
by taking his trophy
photographs.
When confronted
with the crisis of this unexpected,
unforeseen and unintended death,
the defendant freaked out.
People do things
when they're stressed,
when they're panicked,
and often a combination of both
under the influence of alcohol,
that they might later regret.
He may not have done
the right thing afterwards
because of a concern
no one would believe him.
One important source...
of evidence is the way
that Mr Kempson reacted
after Ms Millane died.
So, when I sat down with him,
it was, sort of,
you know, the usual,
"What have you
been up to today?"
And he told me that
he'd been trying to find
a really large sports bag,
because he plays softball
and he teaches children
a lot of softball.
But it was really hard
for him to find a bag
that could fit all
of his equipment in.
Like, he couldn't find one that
was big enough, and, erm...
But in the end,
he did manage to find one,
so that was a win for him,
he said, for the day.
And we talked a little bit
about his friends,
and he said, "Oh, all my
friends are police officers."
And he said, "Met them in
bars, and they just invited me back
to their houses for barbecues."
But he said they're having
a lot of trouble right now
because a lot of bodies
are going missing in the Waitakeres.
But police dogs can
only smell five feet deep,
so if you bury
a body more than five feet,
a police dog can't smell it.
So that was the major issue
facing policemen right now.
But then we also
talked about the fact
that I'd sat through
a murder trial,
and I saw this guy
be put away for life,
and then Jesse said,
"Yeah, it's just crazy how guys
can make one wrong move...
and be... put away for life."
I just thought it was
really, really strange.
I think I said I had to go,
and he actually had to
walk the same direction
that my car was in,
but I didn't feel comfortable
walking next to him,
so I actually just
walked down the street
and went somewhere else,
and he went
and walked to his car.
She was back in his apartment,
and I didn't know,
and I didn't-- I couldn't do anything about it.
9:31, Grace Millane
leaves the building...
folded,
contorted, however
you want to describe it,
in a suitcase.
Miss Millane initiated
and asked him
to put his hands around her neck
to give her sexual pleasure.
Miss Millane raised
and initiated
and led these activities
the restraint, the slapping,
the biting and the choking.
Of course, he was
not experienced enough
to actually know
how to do this properly
and what the dangers
actually were.
He's really just a young man
who's prepared to do
what his sexual partners
want him to do in the bedroom.
He simply did what
she asked him to do.
So on 3rd December,
that's the Monday,
he goes out early
in that morning.
He goes to Kumeu ITM
to get the spade.
What's interesting about Kumeu
is he goes through the pretence of buying some bolts.
He's diverting interest in
"the guy that bought a shovel."
So he's giving it a pretence.
He's covering his tracks.
On the way back from
burying Grace, he's barefooted.
He couldn't be seen
with muddy shoes.
Then he gets
his clothes dry-cleaned.
He went and bought
a second suitcase.
That's the level of planning,
because that sets up
the scenario for him
when he later speaks
to the police.
I've still got that
suitcase in my room.
And you guys can have it,
if that's what you're assuming.
He hoses the mud off
the car, then leaves the shovel,
making it harder for us
to find it.
He gets a call from
the police officer at 4:16 pm
asking him to get in contact
with New Zealand Police,
and that was followed
by him dumping those items in Albert Park.
So he must've still had
some stuff that he needed to get rid of
that linked him
to Grace Millane.
When you see
Jesse Kempson get into the lift
at the CityLife
that first time, there's no panic.
He buys the suitcase,
there's no panic.
Later on, he goes
and buys cleaning products,
there's no panic.
He rents a car, there's no panic.
He's in control.
He says he was panicking.
Somebody else would
have to explain to you
where it is that we can find
evidence that he has panicked.
He goes on that trip
at 5:19 am
on the morning of the 6th.
He goes out to Mission Bay
for a short period
with a shoulder bag,
with something in it that
must be really important.
The police never found
Grace Millane's phone.
Then he's gone on about
the necessary business,
to clean up,
and to break the
forensic linkage and chain
to him and the deceased,
and that is calculating,
and that is a man
who has murdered.
We had a couple of
staff, police staff,
at the CityLife Hotel,
and Kempson comes along.
And, of course, he sees
that the police are inside,
and he just calmly walks away,
walks back down the street
towards Queen Street.
One of the hotel staff saw him
and indicated
to the police staff,
"Oh, there... he is there."
The 6th of December
interview is important,
because that was an opportunity
for the defendant to tell the truth.
He went to that meeting,
conveyed that
he wished to tell them
everything that he knew
about Grace Millane.
That's her there?
You recognise her?
- Yep.
- Okay.
Now, if he was a person
who had accidentally
or inadvertently killed her,
this, if not previous,
was the opportunity
for him to say so...
isn't it? And he doesn't.
Okay. And where are
you guys going now?
So she's going that way,
and I'm going across the street.
He lies.
He lies and lies and lies.
He's pretty good at this.
The night he tried to murder me,
I wrote a letter in case
my body was found,
stating everything he did to me
that night, and I signed it,
because I honestly thought
I was gonna die.
I came home,
and I walked up the stairs.
He looked at me, and he said,
"I'm gonna kill you."
And just that fear
of being like,
"Fuck. I thought
it'd settled down."
It just kept going on.
"You're gonna die today.
I'm gonna murder you."
At some point,
he went and got that knife,
got me on the ground, and I was
in, like, a foetal position.
He was on top of me with
the knife by my throat.
And then he got me behind
the couch in a chokehold...
And I'll never forget, he whispered in my ear,
"Shh. Time to go to sleep."
So I knew after that night,
I had just accepted my fate
that I was gonna end up dead.
He needed power
and control at all times,
and when he didn't have it,
he would resort back
to those violent behaviours.
He slapped me.
He head-butted me.
He'd hold my throat
'till I couldn't breathe
while he was having sex
with me.
Whenever he was angry at me,
he'd go to the kitchen
and get the butcher knife
and hold it to my throat.
Those were tactics
to just remind me,
"I could kill you
if I choose to."
He had to be hurting you.
It excited him.
I am the only person that
will actually know deep down
what happened behind that door.
What I think happened
is that she said no to him,
and he lost it, 'cos he
doesn't like being told no.
And when I think of that,
that really gets me sad...
...'cos I know the fear
that she would've felt in those
final moments.
And that really saddens me.
It just should
never have happened,
and she didn't ask for that.
Kempson's ex-girlfriend
couldn't give evidence
at Grace's trial. She would
have her own trial against him.
So we found other women
that had been on Tinder dates with him.
Today,
the Crown called evidence from these other women
in an effort to prove
a pattern of behaviour.
One witness told the
court of fearing for her life
during their encounter
as her breathing was restricted.
The woman
said the man sat down,
putting his full weight
on her face.
Do you think that...
you may have overemphasised
or exaggerated
what took place that night
and how you really
felt about it?
Not at all.
That's not a pleasurable thing.
He would have seen me
kicking and writhing.
You can't say that I was
sitting there enjoying it.
I suggest he didn't
have hold of your arms
in any form of restraint at all.
After he moved off me,
after the struggling,
after the holding me down,
I said that I couldn't breathe.
It's just nonsense, isn't it?
Nothing bad did happen.
You weren't kicking
or struggling at all.
He didn't have
hold of your arms.
He didn't say any
of those things to you.
This is not a lie.
I'm not trying to justify anything.
I don't wanna be
telling my horrific story
in front of all you people,
but I am, and it's the truth,
and you can't take that away.
They victim-shamed her.
They made her feel like
a piece of shit all over again.
It wasn't bad enough
that Jesse had done it,
now professional lawyers are
making you feel worthless.
I don't care
if that's your job.
You don't degrade someone
over sexual violence
when a victim is trying to be
brave in front of her abuser.
The defence's tactic
was to undermine
and place the blame
on the women involved,
including Grace,
and this was echoed around
the world.
It was shocking to see
how quickly
people accepted this argument.
People were so quick
to judge and blame Grace.
If people are gonna use
that type of defence,
all it actually does
is repeatedly re-victimises
the victim
and the victim's family.
They just made her
out to be this minx that loved rough sex,
and I don't care if she did.
She didn't deserve that.
No one deserves that.
She was shamed
and blamed...
but she doesn't
consent to her murder.
It was Kempson's actions
that killed Grace.
Nothing else.
Kempson had told
us so many lies.
There's no evidence that actual
sexual intercourse took place.
We don't know that.
That's what he said, and everybody's assumed that.
But evidentially,
there is no evidence that that actually happened.
There's only one person
who can say what went on, and that was Kempson.
He didn't get up in the box.
He'd had his interviews
at the time
of the investigation.
Grace couldn't defend herself.
Many women have identified with Grace Millane's case.
Many have told media here
that what happened to her
could have happened to them,
could have happened to anybody,
and that they wanted
to be there for the final day in court.
There was
an eerie silence at the High Court in Auckland today
as the high-profile case
came to a close.
When the verdict
was read out,
probably the most emotional
courtroom I've ever been in.
Madam Foreman, please stand.
Members of the jury, have you
reached the unanimous verdict
that is one on which all 12
of you agree on charge
- or on the charge of murder?
- We have.
Do you find the defendant,
Jesse Shane Kempson,
guilty or not guilty?
Guilty.
"The verdict of murder today...
...will be welcomed
by every member
of the Millane family
and friends of Grace.
It will not reduce
the pain, the suffering
that we've had to endure
for over the past year.
Grace was taken away from us
in the most brutal fashion a year ago,
and our lives and family
have been ripped apart.
This will be with us for
the rest of our lives.
Grace was a beautiful, talented, loving daughter.
Grace was our sunshine,
and she will be missed forever.
Finally, we must return home
and try and pick up
the pieces of our lives
and day-to-day without
our beloved Grace."
Thank you all.
The family feel that Grace's
murderer has also killed David.
You know, the stress,
the cancer,
and he would have died
of a broken heart.
I will miss my darling, Grace,
until the last breath
in my body leaves me.
The laughter, the conversations,
the memories...
You will never be forgotten,
my darling.
I will do my utmost
to ensure that no other
family needs to go through what we have endured,
and to create a future without
male violence towards women.
What woman wants to be
strangled to death?
That's what I think. No woman
wants to be strangled to death.
He wasn't doing
what she wanted him to do.
He murdered her. Full-stop.
I've often said that
if it wasn't Grace, it was gonna be someone else...
and I still believe that.