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50,000 searches for Grace Millane murder accused on Google

Author
NZ Herald ,
Publish Date
Thu, 13 Dec 2018, 8:40AM
Grace Millane was murdered on the weekend of her 22nd birthday.
Grace Millane was murdered on the weekend of her 22nd birthday.

50,000 searches for Grace Millane murder accused on Google

Author
NZ Herald ,
Publish Date
Thu, 13 Dec 2018, 8:40AM

Computer users in New Zealand have searched for the identity of the 26-year-old man accused of murdering Grace Millane more than 50,000 times, Google statistics show.

Search giant Google also emailed the name to anyone signed up to its "what's trending in New Zealand" email.

On Monday the name of the accused was the second-most searched through Google in New Zealand with over 50,000 searches.

The most popular search was "Grace Millane UK" which quickly led users to news articles from British newspapers who were naming the accused.

Millane was murdered on the weekend of her 22nd birthday, just a day after she arrived in Auckland as part of a one-year solo OE.

She had landed in New Zealand 10 days earlier and had been travelling around the North Island before settling in Auckland for a visit.

A 26-year-old man has been charged with Millane's murder.

He applied for name suppression when he appeared in the Auckland District Court, but Judge Evangelos Thomas refused to grant the order.

The man's lawyer then indicated he would appeal that decision in the High Court.

This mean the accused had to be granted interim suppression for the 20 working days allowed for him to make that appeal.

As of yesterday, no appeal had been received by the High Court.

Justice Minister Andrew Little has rebuked UK media for naming the murder accused, warning their actions risk jeopardising a fair trial, which could heap more misery on the grieving Millane family.

"I think it's unfortunate the British papers have done what they've done. It will not do justice to the Millane family if the accused in this case gets to walk away from facing justice because somebody else has disclosed his details," Little said earlier this week.

The naming of the man, which has also happened in social media, could be used to argue that he won't get a fair trial, Little said.

"The defence counsel will be looking for every opportunity to say fair trial rights might be compromised. The guy at some point will face court and potentially a trial in New Zealand

"If he doesn't, and he gets to walk away, that's a further injustice to the Millane family."

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