A cousin of murdered British backpacker Grace Millane has said the sentencing of her killer this week will not give closure to the family.
Hannah O’Callaghan told BBC Breakfast: “The sentence will not change the fact that Grace is gone.”
Ms Millane, from Wickford in Essex, was strangled on the night before her 22nd birthday by a man she met on a dating app in New Zealand in December 2018.
Her killer, a 27-year-old man who New Zealand's courts have banned from being identified, was found guilty at Auckland High Court in November. He is due to be sentenced on Friday.
Ms O'Callaghan was asked whether the family felt as if this week was a big week, or marked a chapter ending.
She replied: "No. Every week is going to be a big week. It's not closure."
The family have now set up a charity in her memory, called Love Grace, where handbags and toiletries are collected for domestic abuse victims.
The project is now running in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Britain.
Ms O’Callaghan described it as a “really fitting tribute” as it helps to make women “feel like they are worth something”.
It has also helped Ms Millane’s mother Gillian to grieve.
Ms O’Callaghan told the programme: “It’s allowed her to express her grief.
“Sometimes when things like this happen you do feel useless.
“You can’t change it so let’s make some positives out of our negative.”
Ms O’Callaghan remembered the recent university graduate who was travelling the world as a “fun-loving carefree individual” with much to look forward to.
Prosecutors said Ms Millane's killer strangled her and shoved her body inside a suitcase before burying her after the pair met up through a dating app.
She was assumed missing and her father, David Millane, flew to New Zealand as local authorities spent a week searching until her body was found buried in a shallow grave in a forested area outside Auckland by police.
