New Zealand backpacker killer revealed as serial predator
- 22 Dec 2020
Gulf Today Report
The New Zealand man who murdered British backpacker Grace Millane in New Zealand two years ago was on Tuesday charged with violent sex crimes against at least two other women, a court revealed.
Police urged more victims to come forward as the New Zealand Supreme Court lifted a suppression order that has kept Jesse Shane Kempson’s identity secret since he strangled the tourist in his Auckland apartment on her 22nd birthday in December 2018.
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The murder shocked New Zealand, which is usually regarded as a safe place to travel, prompting a tearful apology to Millane's family from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after the young traveller's body was found.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a press conference. File photo
He stuffed her body into a suitcase, drove to the Waitakere Ranges forest and buried her in a shallow grave, where police found her body a week later.
Media can also now report that Kempson, 28, had also been convicted of attacking two more women who reported him to police after his arrest over Millane’s disappearance.
Kempson faced two other trials before judges without juries last year for the crimes against the two women, who cannot be named.
After the first trial, he was found guilty of sexual, physical and financial abuse of a former girlfriend. He was sentenced to 7½ years in prison.
After the second trial, he was found guilty of raping another woman whom, like Millane, he met on Tinder. He was sentenced to 3½ years in prison.
Millane had been travelling through New Zealand as part of a planned yearlong trip abroad after graduating from university. Her death shocked many in New Zealand, which prides itself on welcoming tourists and where many people travel abroad as well.
The suppression order that has kept Kempson’s identity secret is a restriction that is sometimes imposed by the New Zealand judicial system for reasons such to prevent prejudicing jurors in another trial that a defendant might face.
