Millane met Kempson in a dating app in December 2018. She was last seen in downtown Auckland, and her body was later found by police in a bush-clad area west of the city.
A ruling by the country’s courts on Tuesday meant an order that kept Kempson’s name hidden. was raised – and revealed that his name was suppressed because he was facing two other cases of abuse.
In October this year, Kempson was convicted of a number of offenses against his former partner, including the threat of murder, assault with a weapon and sexual assault through unlawful sexual intercourse, according to the Supreme Court ruling. Kempson was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for those crimes that took place before Millane’s assassination, Kempson’s lawyer, Tiffany Cooper, confirmed.
Kempson was also convicted of raping another woman he met on the Tinder dating app after a separate trial in November, the ruling said. Cooper said he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for that crime, which happened just months before Millane’s murder.
Like Millane, the rape victim was British and was on holiday in New Zealand, Cooper said.
Kempson has been given the suppression of his name after being convicted of Millane’s murder, so as not to prejudice the jury in his future trials this year. In the end, Kempson opted for a trial before a judge – and without a jury – for both cases.
After being found guilty in the October and November trials, Kempson appealed to the Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court to uphold his name. In Tuesday’s ruling, the Supreme Court rejected his request to challenge the orders to remove the names.
Cooper said Kempson is appealing his sentence and conviction in all three cases.
The death of Grace Millane
Millane had traveled the world when she was killed.
On December 1, 2018 – on the eve of his 22nd birthday – Millane met Kempson and visited several bars before going to his hotel. She disappeared more than a week before her body was found in the Waitakere Ranges in West Auckland.
During a trial last year, Millane’s lawyers claimed that her death was accidental and took place during consensual “hard sex”.
The jury deliberated for four hours before deciding that Kempson was guilty of murder. They found that Kempson had strangled Millane to death, crammed her into a suitcase, and then taken her body to a wooded area.
CNN’s Amy Woodyatt contributed to this story.