The murder of British backpacker Grace Millane will be revisited tonight in an ITV documentary.
Social Media Murders is a new true-crime series for ITV2 and ITV Hub that brings together three films airing over consecutive nights, each focusing on a shocking real crime that resulted in the death of a young person.
Linking each of the films is the unsettling role social media played in bringing together the culprit and the victim.
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Providing a compelling yet cautionary insight into the experiences of young people affected by disturbing 21st-century crime, these three films put the victim at the centre of the narrative alongside material obtained from social media accounts and mobile phones which will immerse viewers in the events as they unfolded.
Tonight's episode focuses on the tragic and disturbing story of 22-year-old Grace Millane, a British backpacker who went missing while on a Tinder date in Auckland in 2018.
A week after Grace’s disappearance 26-year-old Jesse Kempson was arrested and later convicted of Grace’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
After university Grace embarked on the adventure of a lifetime travelling to South America and then New Zealand.
The night before her 22nd birthday Grace arranged to meet Jesse Kempson for a date - the pair had met via Tinder.
Raising questions around women’s safety, this film documents the night of Grace’s disappearance, the subsequent search for her, the arrest of Jesse, the court case that followed and ultimately the role that a dating app played in bringing these two individuals together.
Exclusive interviews with the investigators closest to the case combined with both revealing police interview footage with the culprit Jesse Kempson and CCTV footage tell the story of a truly chilling case that sparked worldwide media attention.
Other individuals also speak for the first time including Grace’s friends, a fellow traveller and former flatmate of Jesse Kempson as she recounts her own experience of knowing the cold-blooded killer and the suspicions she had of him prior to this event.
Kempson’s ‘rough sex defence’ otherwise known as the ‘50 shades of grey defence’ is also explored during this documentary, and how this case in particular inspired a change in British law.
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