Court shown Grace Millane accused wheeling her body in suitcase
The jury in the trial of the man accused of killing British backpacker Grace Millane was shown CCTV footage of the suspect moving a suitcase containing the victim's body on a luggage trolley into a lift and then loading them into a car.
The video contradicted with claims made by the the 27-year-old accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in a police interview also shown to the court.
The suspect told police he left Ms Millane after their date at 8pm on December 1 last year and spent the evening drinking on his own in a pub, before passing out and being carried to his apartment by the CityLife Hotel concierge, adding that he could not remember everything that happened to him after 11pm.
Previously the court had seen footage of Ms Millane and the suspect entering his apartment's building on the night she disappeared.
On Wednesday the jury saw footage from about 8am the next day, showing the accused leaving the CityLife Hotel and returning minutes later with a new large suitcase. The court also saw video of the man at a supermarket buying cleaning products, and heard that he took a taxi at 10.40am to hire a rental car.
Later that day the accused met a woman for a date at a bar. He told police in his first interview he had met a colleague from work. Ms Millane’s body was hidden in his room while he was on the date.
The accused has since admitted Ms Millane died in his apartment and he buried her, but claims her death was accidental.
Yesterday forensic pathologist Dr Simon Stables told the court injuries like those found on Ms Millane’s body were "incredibly rare".
Dr Stables told the court more than a dozen bruises were found on Ms Millane's body, with nine of them occurring “probably around the time of death” to her upper arms, left clavicle and collarbone, and to the front and back of her left shoulder.
“This bruising wouldn’t occur with gentle pressure on the neck … it takes quite a bit of effort," Dr Stables told the court, adding that it would typically take a person four to five minutes to die from the injuries Ms Millane suffered.
On Monday a witness alleged in court that the accused accused tried to suffocate her on a date in November, and last week DNA experts said blood found in the suspect's apartment, despite his attempts to clean up, was 500 million times more likely to have come from Ms Millane than anyone else.
Grace Millane’s death sparked an outpouring of grief in New Zealand, with vigils around the country for the 21-year-old from Essex, and a national conversation about violence against women.
Late last year former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said New Zealand's government needed to recognise that violence against women was “a national crisis”, citing a study that showed the country was one of the least safe for women in the developed world, due primarily to the rate of intimate partner violence.
