Grace Millane: Charity helping family 'channel grief' after backpacker's murder

The mother of British backpacker Grace Millane said a charity set up to support women affected by domestic violence helped the family deal with its grief.

Gill Millane said her daughter would have been "immensely proud" of the Love Grace charity which helps women affected by domestic violence.

Grace Millane, 22, from Wickford in Essex was killed while on a Tinder date in New Zealand in December 2018.

"We needed to channel that grief, because it is quite easy to sit inside and not come out, but the charity is a better way of dealing with the grief," Gill Millane told ITV News London.

"Grace was my best friend, we used to go on holiday and she was a good girl.

"She was a very free spirit and very independent and from the age of eleven wanted to go to New Zealand.

"All she ever wanted to do was see the world and enjoy life," she added.

The charity combines Grace's love of handbags with a mission to end violence towards women.

Donated handbags are filled with toiletries and little luxuries and donated to women’s refuges, who then distribute them to people staying in their accommodation and clients who come for counselling.

"I think Grace would be immensely proud of us, I don't stop missing her," Gill said.

Jesse Shane Kempson was convicted of murdering Grace Millane after meeting her the day before her 22nd birthday.

Kempson was convicted by a jury in November 2019 and jailed in February for at least 17 years for the murder. He claimed Ms Millane died accidentally. In sentencing, Justice Simon Moore told Kempson his actions amounted to “conduct that underscores a lack of empathy and sense of self-entitlement and objectification”.

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