GUILTY NEW ZEALAND - Grace Millane, 22, British backpacker, Auckland, 1 Dec 2018 #3

[LucyRocket]

This is really starting to cheese me off now. Seeing it all laid out like this.

The defence says that woman might have been making it up. The defence says there is no way of knowing how long pressure would have been applied. The defence says these might have been random searches. The defence says there is no way of proving that those pictures are of a dead Grace.

Then why, in heaven's name, doesn't he (the accused), bloody well get up there and tell us otherwise??

 

[LucyRocket]

I know they say you can't judge or be bias when a defendant chooses not to give evidence, but what the hell are you supposed to think when the only person in the whole world who could give a first-hand account, doesn't want to?

 

[jamjim]

12.10pm

During Justice Moore's summary the accused has remained calm in the dock.

Flanked between two court security officers he is sitting listening intently to the judge's summation.

The public gallery is packed and alongside Millane's parents, a relative of the accused and a number of police who worked on the investigation are present.

Justice Moore has touched on the accused's conduct after Millane had died in his apartment.

Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey said his actions were "extremely instructive in terms of what he'd just done before and his intent".

He called on the jury to put themselves in the shoes of the accused.

Grace Millane murder trial: What the judge told the jury

...

 

[jamjim]

"What would you do?" Dickey had posed.

"What does he do? Does he ring 111?"


Justice Moore said instead of that, the Crown said the accused calmly went about watching , working out how and where to dump Millane and organised another Tinder date.

"How plausible is that if you thought you'd really badly hurt someone by accident you'd call emergency services," said Justice Moore.

"Instead, Mr Dickey says, this is telling evidence that he'd killed her and he was ok with that."

"Was it some awful accident or was it in fact the very opposite?"

"The essence of Mr Dickey's decision is that… this was not a man in panic, this was a man who was cool, calm and in control.

"He knew what he was doing he knew what he had to do… it speaks to someone who has killed with murderous intent."

Justice Moore then touched on the defence closing address.

They posed that their client made a poor decision after discovering Millane dead on his apartment floor.

He got to a "pivot point" when he made the choice not to call 111 and to bury her in the Waitakere Ranges.

Once he committed to that course of action, he got to "a point of no return" and could not turn back.

"Once committed and locked in, he had to keep to together… he had to appear normal to others," Justice Moore recounted.

"But the further and further he went along that path the harder and harder it became for him to return."

The defence said it was more useful for the jury to look at the accused's actions and persona before Millane's death.

"what possible motive would the accused have to end the life of a woman whose company he was so evidently enjoying," Justice Moore summed up.

"When seen in this way, the prospect of a sexual accident is supported, says Mr Brookie."

Grace Millane murder trial: What the judge told the jury

 

[LucyRocket]

Justice Simon Moore continues his summing up of the case.

The Crown claims the pathology evidence does not match the accused's account of consensual sex.

The court has previously heard it takes a number of minutes and quite some effort to kill someone via manual strangulation, which is not the low-level consensual touching the accused states, the Crown claims.

Before death, the victim often bleeds from the whites of the eyes and the nose, and can fall unconscious and floppy in your arms.
The Crown said the accused recklessly continued past all these signs, for a further 5 to 10 minutes, to reach death.

Experts also say death from a consensual, manual strangulation in a sexual context is very rare.

The defence said the expert evidence is entirely consistent with a consensual sexual encounter.

The defence said pathologists couldn't find any visible injuries on Grace at all, no injuries to show there was a struggle - as would be expected if a person was strangled against their will.

Grace Millane murder trial: Judge gives closing remarks before jury retires

 

[jamjim]

12:11pm - Justice Moore is talking about the elements of the Crown’s case for murderous intent. He begins by discussing the pathology evidence.

He says the Crown submitted this evidence should be contrasted with the accused's defence that Millane’s death happened during "consensual, erotic asphyxiation that went wrong".

Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey said someone would need to be strangled for minutes with substantial force in order to kill them.

"Is this consistent with consensual, loving, breath play?," Dickey asked.

But Justice Moore says the defence pointed to the fact that there was no significant injuries to Millane’s neck that one would expect to see after a struggle during an aggressive attack.

Defence lawyer Ian Brookie had also said the evidence was unclear about how long strangulation needed before death.

Grace Millane murder trial: Justice Simon Moore sums up trial before deliberations begin

 

[LucyRocket]

Oooh a relative of the accused.....

 

[PrimeSuspect]

and possibly his knees pinning her arms or even his 'genitals on her face' might have also stopped her being able to fight him off. UGH . i've just had an awful thought, i wonder if that was the position he was in when he strangled her, it might explain why he didn't see her face struggling or something. he will have been too occupied staring at her feet..

Yep, that did enter my head too, and Grace being on the floor would be easier for him to hold her down, imo.

 

[jamjim]

Oooh a relative of the accused.....

Would love to know which relative!

 

[PrimeSuspect]

This is really starting to cheese me off now. Seeing it all laid out like this.

The defence says that woman might have been making it up. The defence says there is no way of knowing how long pressure would have been applied. The defence says these might have been random searches. The defence says there is no way of proving that those pictures are of a dead Grace.

Then why, in heaven's name, doesn't he (the accused), bloody well get up there and tell us otherwise??

Exactly.
Not being on the jury and just being here, I can only think he's scared to recount noises or sounds or words Grace made/said and he ignored. Sadly, he didn't give the defence a version either. No where did Brookie say, this is what the accused said happened. smh

 

[Edinlass]

Could the ‘relative’ be one of the reasons for the name suppression? Just my opinion.

 

[LucyRocket]

Thank you @jamjim for keeping the updates coming

 

[jamjim]

12:27pm - On the accused's conduct after Millane died, Justice Moore notes the Crown believed the actions after death are "instructive", informing the jury about the time of death, the accused's level of composure and the accused's attitude towards Millane's body.

Dickey submitted that the actions showed a lack of panic.

But the defence said people get things wrong in high-stress situations. Brookie submitted that the accused committed himself to a course and couldn’t show external signs of panic or of being upset.

Grace Millane murder trial: Justice Simon Moore sums up trial before deliberations begin

 

[CrazyLilBlondie]

Oooh a relative of the accused.....

What have I missed?

 

[stephaniejanes]

Could the ‘relative’ be one of the reasons for the name suppression? Just my opinion.

I have been wondering about this too!

 

[Mariposa]

For those from the UK , do judges sum up a case in depth like this as well?

This is very different to US courts, judges read jury instructions but they are much drier recitation of elements of a crime and related concepts, they don’t review the contentions of each side in this detail.
Access to a full written trial transcript for the jury is also novel to me

 

[jamjim]

What have I missed?

Turns out one of the accused's relatives is there in the court room today watching the proceedings. Interesting!

 

[Edinlass]

For those from the UK , do judges sum up a case in depth like this as well?

This is very different to US courts, judges read jury instructions but they are much drier recitation of elements of a crime and related concepts, they don’t review the contentions of each side in this detail.
Access to a full written trial transcript for the jury is also novel to me

They may but it’s not reported in depth like this. Although I’ve never sat in a high court case so wouldn’t know for sure.

 

[Kikixxxx]

For those from the UK , do judges sum up a case in depth like this as well?

This is very different to US courts, judges read jury instructions but they are much drier recitation of elements of a crime and related concepts, they don’t review the contentions of each side in this detail.
Access to a full written trial transcript for the jury is also novel to me

no they really don't.... its a brief summary of the trial, possibly lasts an hour if that. this is taking all morning an hes only half way through apparently...

 

[CrazyLilBlondie]

Yep, that did enter my head too, and Grace being on the floor would be easier for him to hold her down, imo.

It’s odd/interesting they never got into the specifics of how it happened. If he was strangling her during penetration then how did he hold down both her arms? If it was with his thighs then it would be almost impossible to stay penetrating. Did they think he strangled her with both hands. Was she restrained with a belt? Not that I want to visualise it but there’s so much unknown from that room