Grace Millane's murderer will keep his name suppressed for now.
On Friday morning, it emerged the killer had applied for leave from the Supreme Court to keep his name secret after the Court of Appeal on Thursday declined to continue the suppression. It was meant to become public at 11am, at the same the Court of Appeal is expected to release its decision on his bid to appeal his conviction and sentence for killing the British backpacker.
However, the Supreme Court says until it has time to consider the application, the suppression order will be extended.
The 28-year-old man was found guilty of murdering Millane at the Auckland High Court in November last year. In February, Justice Simon Moore sentenced him to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
Millane, a 21-year-old backpacker from Essex, England travelling New Zealand, was strangled to death in an Auckland CityLife apartment room in December 2018 following a four-hour-long Tinder date. Her body was found days later buried in a suitcase in the Waitakere Ranges.
The man rejected the murder charge and argued at the trial that the British woman's death was an accident during a form of rough sex. However, the jury of seven women and five men found otherwise.
Millane's disappearance, the subsequent homicide investigation, and the trial received international media attention. Following her death, vigils were held across the country in the backpacker's honour, while Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a personal apology to Millane's family for what had happened to the young woman.
Throughout the three-week trial, Millane's parents watched on from the court gallery, which was also packed with onlookers.
"The verdict of murder will be welcomed by every member of the Millane family," Grace's father, David, said following the guilty verdict. "It will not reduce the pain and the suffering we have had to endure over the past year."
