Grace Millane's mother confronts killer as he is jailed for life: 'She died terrified and alone with you'

Grace Millane’s mother confronted her daughter’s killer in a heartbreaking impact statement read as he was sentenced to life in jail on Friday.

British backpacker Miss Millane was murdered on the eve of her 22nd birthday after the pair went on a Tinder date while she was in New Zealand in December 2018.

Appearing in court via video link as the killer was jailed for at least 17 years, her mother Gillian told how her daughter was “my friend. My very best friend.”

Addressing the 28-year-old murderer directly the emotional statement read from the family home, she said Miss Millane “died terrified and alone in a room with you.”

British backpacker Grace Millane was murdered in New Zealand
PA

She said: “The terror and pain she must have experienced at your hands, as a mother I would have done anything to change places with her. She died terrified and alone in a room with you.”

Mrs Millane added: “The tears I shed are never-ending at the thought of never having the chance to kiss my Grace goodbye.”

The killer was handed life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years at his sentencing at Auckland High Court on Friday morning.

The man, whose name is subject to a suppression order, killed her in his hotel room before burying her body in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Auckland.

Grace Millane's parents David and Gillian arrive with Detective Inspector Scott Beard at Auckland High Court in November
Getty Images

He was found guilty and convicted of murdering the young woman, from Wickford in Essex, last November.

Jailing him for life with a minimum term of 17 years, Justice Simon Moore told the murderer his actions amounted to "conduct that underscores a lack of empathy and sense of self-entitlement and objectification".

Miss Millane had been in New Zealand for less than two weeks when she matched with the man on Tinder. She died the night they first met in person.

Her parents were forced to endure a three-week trial in Auckland. Her killer refused to give evidence and instead put Miss Millane's sex life in the spotlight.

Miss Millane, a Lincoln University graduate, was on a round-the-world trip when she was murdered.

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