Warning: This story and related coverage of the trial contain graphic details that may be distressing for some readers.
Jesse Shane Kempson is serving time for murdering Grace Millane, and has also been found guilty on a raft of sexual violation offences relating to two other women. Here's a timeline over the past two years.
Jesse Shane Kempson. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
British backpacker Grace Millane arrived in New Zealand on 20 November 2018.
On the eve of her 22nd birthday, she went on a date with a man she met on Tinder. He later strangled her to death in his apartment in central Auckland and buried her body in a suitcase, in a shallow grave in the Waitākere Ranges.
Two years later, the man found guilty of her murder - and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years - can now be named.
He is 28-year-old Jesse Shane Kempson.
It can now be revealed Kempson had other victims - and he has been convicted and sentenced on a raft of sexual violation offences relating to two other women.
He is mounting appeals in both cases.
This is what happened -
- 20 November 2018: Grace Millane arrives in New Zealand.
- 1 December 2018: Millane sends a photo of a Christmas tree at Sky City to her family back in England. It's the last time she contacts them.
- 2 December 2018: Millane's 22nd birthday.
- 3 December 2018: Kempson drives to the Waitākere Ranges and buries Millane's body in a shallow grave.
- 5 December 2018: Millane is reported missing by her family after she fails to respond to their birthday messages.
- 7 December 2018: David Millane arrives in New Zealand and makes an emotional appeal for any information about his daughter's disappearance.
- 8 December 2018: The missing person's investigation turns into a homicide inquiry. Kempson is arrested and charged with murder.
- 9 December 2018: Millane's body is found in the Waitākere Ranges.
- 10 December 2018: Kempson makes his first appearance in the Auckland District Court. He is granted interim name suppression. However, his name is published on social media and by international media outlets.
- 16 January 2019: Kempson pleads not guilty to murder in the High Court at Auckland.
- 4 November 2019: Trial begins in the High Court at Auckland, with a jury of seven women and five men.
- 22 November 2019: After five hours of deliberations, the jury delivers a guilty verdict.
- 21 February 2020: Kempson sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years in the High Court at Auckland.
- 6 August 2020: Kempson appeals his conviction and sentence to the Court of Appeal.
- 19 October 2020: Kempson appears in his second trial in the High Court at Auckland. It is a judge-alone trial. He faces eight charges relating to the physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse of an ex-girlfriend: two charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, three charges of male assaults female, two of assault with a weapon and one of threatening to kill.
- 23 October 2020: After reserving his decision, Justice Brewer finds Kempson guilty on all eight charges.
- 2 November 2020: Kempson's third trial gets underway in the High Court at Auckland. It is also a judge-alone trial. He is charged with raping a woman he met on Tinder in an Auckland motel.
- 6 November 2020: After reserving his decision, Justice Venning finds Kempson guilty of rape.
- 20 November 2020: Kempson is jailed for seven-and-a-half years for subjecting his ex-girlfriend to months of physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse. Kempson is appealing his conviction and sentence in this case.
- 27 November 2020: Kempson is jailed for three-and-a-half years for raping a woman in an Auckland motel. He is also appealing his conviction and sentence in this case.
- 18 December 2020: The Court of Appeal dismisses his bid to overturn his conviction and sentence for murdering Millane. He has indicated he will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.
- 22 December 2020: The Supreme Court denies his last-ditch appeal bid and name suppression lapses.
Millane goes on a date with Kempson, bar hopping in central Auckland. She was last seen alive about 9.40pm. CCTV footage shows her exiting a lift at the CityLife Hotel with Kempson. A few hours later, she was dead.
Kempson cleans his apartment, buys a suitcase to put Millane's body in and hires a car. He heads to Ponsonby for another Tinder date that afternoon.
About 24 hours after she was last seen, Kempson wheels a suitcase with Millane's body in it out of the CityLife Hotel and puts it in the rental car.
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