Man who says he accidentally strangled Grace Millane during rough sex ‘choked another woman who asked him to during a one-night-stand’
- Grace Millane, 22, was on a round-the-world trip when she died in Dec 2018
- She had been on a Tinder date with the defendant and said it went well
- Prosecution allege he killed her but defence say her death was accidental
- Body of graduate, from Wickford, Essex, was later found in a suitcase in woods
The man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane choked another woman during rough sex days before, a court heard today.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on a Tinder date with a waitress nine days before his fateful meeting with Grace, 22.
She later served the pair cocktails on the night Grace, of Wickford, Essex, disappeared in Auckland, New Zealand late last year.
The woman, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, told Auckland’s High Court she had matched with the 27-year-old alleged killer in November 2018.
She said: ‘We asked each other what we preferred during sex and so I did mention that I liked rough sex and also choking.
‘He did say that he liked rough sex as well but I don’t remember if he said anything about choking.’
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is pictured flanked by corrections officers during the opening of the trial in Auckland, New Zealand
Grace Millane, (left after graduation) vanished during the early hours of her 22nd birthday while on a round-the-world trip in New Zealand
Questioned by prosecutor Brian Dickey, she said she had gone to man’s apartment at the CityLife apartment at 7pm on November 22 to meet him for the first time.
She bought a bottle of rum and the man, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, met her in the lobby.
‘It was a nice place,’ she said. ‘We went up to his room and we started talking to each other.
‘I had about four glasses of rum and coke and he drank about four bottles of Heineken.
‘After he went to bathroom he kissed me and from there it went to the bed.’
During sex, she said, ‘he did choke me a bit because that’s a preference of mine, just one hand around my neck.
Miss Millane’s body was found in a wooded area near Auckland a week after she was last seen at a hotel in Auckland city centre, a court heard
‘It was fine, it was consensual. My breath was a bit restricted but it was something that gave me pleasure.
‘It wasn’t too hard that I gasping for air but it wasn’t so soft that I wouldn’t be able to feel it. It was the right pressure
‘I didn’t have to push him off me. He let me go when I reached…’
The woman said after ordering in pizza and sharing it she had left the man asleep but tried to contact him again after realising she had left her glasses behind.
But the alleged killer didn’t return them and she didn’t see him again until he walked into the bar where she worked on the night of December 1, this time with Grace, who he had also met through Tinder.
‘He came in with a young lady and they walked across the bar to go to a table,’ she told the court.
‘I wasn’t sure it was him until I saw the tattoo on his arm. ‘She looked European. She was wearing a black dress with shoulder length hair.’
The woman served the couple drinks and as he was paying, the woman told him how frustrating it was not to have to her glasses.
Three days later, having buried Grace in a suitcase in remote woodland, he dropped the glasses off at the bar.
Under cross-examination, the woman said when she first spoke to police about the date, which she described as ‘just a hook-up’, she had not mentioned the choking because she ‘just forgot’.
The man denies murder. The trial continues.