Grace Millane murder trial: Pathologist tells jury backpacker died from 'pressure on the neck'

Warning: Contains graphic and sexual content.

An Auckland woman has described the man accused of murdering Grace Millane as a "sociopath" after matching with him on Tinder for a sexual encounter.

She was one of three women to tell their story to the jury yesterday, which included the accused's supposed predilection for erotic asphyxiation, as the second week of the murder trial began yesterday.

Now a pathologist is giving expert evidence and says Millane died from "pressure on the neck".

Crown prosecutors allege that on the night of December 1 - the eve of Millane's 22nd birthday - the accused, 27, strangled the young Brit to death in his central city apartment after the pair spent the night drinking.

Millane's body was found crammed into a suitcase and dumped in a shallow grave in Auckland's Waitakere Ranges a week later.

The Herald brings you the latest updates from the courtroom today:

Pathologist describes examination after Millane's body found in suitcase

1.00pm

Dr Simon Stables, a forensic pathologist, is now under cross-examination by the accused's lead counsel Ian Brookie.

Brookie's line of questioning is proposing his client's account of how Millane died - a sexual encounter gone horribly wrong.

He has told the court the accused accepts Millane died from pressure to her neck, but denies intending to cause her fatal harm.

He asked Stables if he could tell whether the injuries found on Millane's body were "consensual bruises".

Stables said it was impossible to tell, but agreed with Brookie when asked if the injuries might have occurred during rough sex.

Ian Brookie is defending the man accused of murdering Grace Millane. Photo / Michael Craig

12.30pm

Stables said he hadn't seen many cases in New Zealand of death due to manual strangulation.

"We don't see many cases of homicide due to manual strangulation," he told the court.

Also rare, he said, were cases of strangulation due to erotic asphyxiation.

"They are usually of auto-erotic asphyxia," he said, but added the person will usually have "some form of escape mechanism".

12.10pm

Stables continued describing his examination after the morning break and said he found injuries which were consistent with restraint.

Of "significance" was bruising on the left side of Millane's neck, he said.

This injury would normal be a result of pressure over a "sufficient period of time and with sufficient force", Stables said.

"It's not going to happen through a gentle touch of the neck," he explained.

Stables said he determined Millane had died from "pressure on the neck".

For someone to die in this manner, he said, the brain needs to be starved of oxygen for at least four to five minutes.

"It actually takes quite a bit of effort, it doesn't seem like it, but to do so takes quite a bit of effort and strength," Stables said.

Three small red bruises were also found on the inside of Millane's right upper arm, just above the elbow.

And the expert Crown witness said he discovered what could be "fingertip bruising".

"If someone has grabbed on the arm, if there is sufficient force, the fingers may leave bruising," he explained.

There were some bruises to Millane's thighs and inner legs and a faint bruise to her left calf.

Dating bruises, Stables said, was notoriously difficult but added it was extremely hard to bruise a body post-mortem.

He said Millane's bruising was "probably around the time of death" and the pattern was consistent with "some sort of restraint".

"We can't be exact, it's just impossible," he said of trying to date the injuries.

11.40am

Dr Simon Stables, a forensic pathologist, has started giving evidence.

He said his first involvement in the case was around 8am on December 9 after receiving a call from the police officer in charge of the case Detective Inspector Scott Beard.

Beard said they had likely found a body for a missing woman in the Waitakere Ranges.

When Stables arrived at the scene there was a muddy and dirty suitcase still in the ground, he told the court.

He then watched it be removed from the ground and out of the bush.

Police forensic experts sift through the site where Grace Millane's body was found in the Waitakere Ranges. Photo / Supplied

Stables told the court he conducted a quick examination inside the suitcase, because it was partly open, and confirmed there was a person inside - a young woman.

It was then taken to the mortuary and kept in a locked fridge.

The woman's wrists were then swabbed for DNA before her body was later "very carefully" extracted from the suitcase, Stables said.

A photograph booklet showing Stables' examination was at this stage distributed to the jury.

Justice Simon Moore warned them "for obvious reasons aspects of those photographs are disturbing".

Stables then began describing his examination and said he noticed a bruise on the front left shoulder, partly over the collarbone, of the woman - later identified as Millane.

He told the court the injury occurred before her death.

'It still gives me chills'

11.10am

During the woman's re-examination by Auckland's Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey she said the accused, whom she described as hysterical, had claimed he was the cousin of an All Black.

"He told me he had spent the last All Blacks game watching with the wives and girlfriends.

"I thought it was just odd."

She said the accused - who also claimed he had gang connections - clung to the fact she was adopted and also claimed he had been adopted as a child.

"I didn't want to have to be part of this, share my story with everyone - the public," she said.

"I'm embarrassed that I put myself in such a terrifying or dangerous position, that's the only thing that I'm embarrassed about."

10.55am

"He had my arms pinned down ... It's not a pleasurable thing ... He would have seen me kicking," the woman said, as she again was asked to recall her date with the accused.

"After the struggling after holding me down, yes, I said 'I couldn't breathe'."

The woman said the accused "had both my arms".

However defence lawyer Ron Mansfield asked a series of questions: "Although he wanted you to stay the night he didn't stop you from leaving did he?

"You felt uncomfortable and you didn't like it?

"He got off you and then you told him you didn't like it?"

But the woman bit back.

"I was completely scared and fearful," she said.

"A person who can almost kill someone and suffocate them ... And then claim he has cancer to gain some sympathy ... he's a sociopath."

She said her experience was "nasty, it was terrifying".

"It was one of the worst days of my life," she told the court.

"I don't want to be here talking about it, I don't want to be reliving it."

10.30am

One of the accused's lawyers, Ron Mansfield, has this morning continued to question the account of the witness from their November 2 date last year.

Yesterday, she told the court that after being suffocated by the alleged killer during oral sex he made an "almost accusing and quite cold" remark.

"I was gasping, I couldn't breathe properly and he just said to me, 'Oh what's wrong?'

"Almost accusing and quite cold he said, 'Oh you don't think I did that on purpose do you?'"

Mansfield asked: "When you first spoke to the police you put it slightly differently, didn't you?"

The woman agreed she hadn't initially talked to police about the accused's tone but during her testimony has told the court: "Just the way he said it ... it still gives me chills."

The court heard from the woman yesterday that after she matched with the alleged killer on Tinder - as Millane had - she agreed to meet the young man for a drink on November 2 last year.

However, instead of going to a downtown Auckland bar the pair went to the accused's apartment at the CityLife hotel - the same room where Millane died a month later.

The accused killer's downtown Auckland apartment where he took some of his Tinder dates.

"We'd been talking about, like, how much he loved me and wanted to be with me," the witness told the High Court at Auckland.

She told the young man: "We're not having sex."

However, the accused soon removed his pants and she began giving him oral sex, she said.

But, as the witness explained, she would soon be fearing for her life.

"He just sat down on my face," she said through tears. "I couldn't breathe."

The accused was also holding her down, the court heard.

"I couldn't move my arms, I couldn't breathe, so I started kicking - trying to indicate I couldn't breathe," she said.

"I couldn't breathe … I was terrified. He just sat there, he didn't move at all."

The then-university student said she finally managed to turn her head slightly and get a sliver of air.

She then feigned unconsciousness, the court heard.

"'Cause then maybe he'd realise something was wrong.

"There were so many thoughts running through my mind ... This can't be the way I die ... I started thinking about my family and my friends. They can't read about this."

Finally the accused sat up, she said.

"I was gasping, I couldn't breath properly and he just said to me, 'Oh what's wrong?'

"Almost accusing and quite cold he said, 'Oh you don't think I did that on purpose do you?'"

After the incident, the witness said she never wanted to see the 27-year-old man again.

But her text message history led to a lengthy line of questioning under cross-examination by one of the accused's lawyers.

Ron Mansfield read some of the more than 700 messages between the woman and the alleged killer - some of which the well-known lawyer said appeared to show an interest in continuing a relationship.

The messages between the pair continued for several days because, the witness said, she "didn't want to make him angry".

But Mansfield continued and also produced messages from November 8 when the woman asked if the accused was on the social media channel SnapChat.

"Then I could send you pictures throughout the day so you know what I'm up to :)," she said in one message to the alleged killer.

"You think I don't want you but that is totally not true," another read.

The witness admitted she was "leading on" the accused, which included conveying the possibility of a romantic future, but said it was all a lie to instead keep the man at a distance.

Mansfield said: "Did you just want people to not think you were into a guy who was now charged with murder?"

As the courtroom clock moved past 5pm Mansfield said he still had 40 more minutes worth of questions for the witness.

"Oh my God, I'm not coming back!" she cried, burying her head in her hands.

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