Grace Millane case: Woman postponed date with murder accused the day police allege he met Grace

A woman says she was supposed to go on a date with the man accused of murdering Grace Millane on the same day as his alleged meeting with the slain British backpacker.

The woman and the accused, who had been chatting on a dating app, had discussed meeting in person for the first time on December 1 but she postponed their West Auckland meeting because she was busy, Stuff reported.

The accused 26-year-old appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday and has interim name suppression.

The woman, who would not be named, told Stuff she was upset by what had happened.

"Obviously angels were watching over me … I think I need to buy a Lotto ticket."

She had believed she had been talking to a "decent guy".

"At the time it was just legitimately all normal. The only weird thing I thought about him was that he asked me for feet photos and of me with my high heels on."

We would like to remind the public that whilst we appreciate the public feeling around the Grace Millane case, it is an offence to breach a court order such as a name suppression, and this includes naming someone who has name suppression on social media.

— New Zealand Police (@nzpolice) December 10, 2018

On the day she claims she was due to have met the accused man, police allege he met Millane at SkyCity in central Auckland.

Millane's body would be found a week later 10 metres from a roadside in the Waitakere Ranges after 18 police officers, including forensic experts, scoured the bush.

Accused's former flatmate

The claim about the proposed meeting comes as a former flatmate spoke to Radio NZ about feeling uncomfortable living with the man now charged with Millane's murder.

She said her living companions had interviewed him over a video call before he took up the last room in their four-bedroom flat.

The man was a regular user of dating apps and the flatmates began wondering if he was employed, she told RNZ.

After two weeks the group "finally built up the courage" and asked him to leave.

He said his mother had died and he needed to return to Sydney, she said.

"So he left that night, on the pretence that he was going to Sydney, and then when we came home from work the next day he'd cleared out all of his stuff," she said.

"The way that it happened, the way he left so abruptly, we actually got the locks changed the next day," she said.