Grace Millane's murderer Jesse Kempson appeared in the Court of Appeal in Auckland this morning appealing two other convictions, arguing evidence from the victims was exaggerated.
He has been in prison since 2020.
Kempson appeared via AVL link. He sat with a pen in his hand or with his hand close to his chin for much of the hearing before Justices Miller, Muir and Gendall.
Ron Mansfield KC appeared on his behalf.
Kempson is appealing two sentences - one of three-and-a-half years for date rape and another seven-and-a-half years for physically and sexually abusing an ex-partner.
These incarceration orders run concurrently with Kempson's 17-year life sentence for strangling British backpacker Millane in 2018.
At the start of the hearing Mansfield asked the Justices if his client's AVL link could be tilted so that his client could not be viewed by the court. The request was denied.
To his substantive arguments, Mansfield argued that both victims' accounts were inconsistent and unreliable - and both trial judgements "fatally suffer" from trial judges not undertaking a "robust analysis of the complaints' evidence."
Media attention - some of it global - also gave the women a motive to exaggerate their accounts in their respective cases, he said.
"It seemed to take on a life of its own," Mansfield said
In terms of Miss K - the ex-partner - Mansfield pointed to one of her previous comments in court "I was Grace's voice, I will be Grace's voice".
"Miss K outwardly made it very clear that she thought she was Grace's voice... [she was] seeking to support the police case...that provides, unfortunately, fertile ground for someone to exaggerate or to assert conduct beyond which did happen"
The second victim Miss O had gone on a Tinder date with Kempson. Mansfield questioned her conduct in a motel room where the alleged rape took place.
The pair had sat on the bed and kissed and "there was little effort to seek help including with her friend ... who she knows lives locally".
She had also left the motel room for a period before returning to the bed.
"That conduct, in my submission, sits in stark contrast to the way in which she seeks to explain this relationship at the motel"
Mansfield said Miss O never said a thing about the night to her mother who she saw the next day or a friend she'd been in contact with during the night until she saw Kempson identified on the internet while at work.
"It doesn't sit comfortably," was a phrase Mansfield repeated throughout his submission in relation to Miss O's reliability.
He argued both felt the need to explain a "voluntary relationship" with Kempson.
Crown responds
Crown prosecutor Fiona Culliney, in response to Miss K's comments in court, said it didn't suggest she had a motive to lie. "Rather, it demonstrates the depth of emotion she feels having been a partner of Mr Kempson, who went on to murder Grace Millane."
In terms of Miss O, Culliney said in the circumstances, it may have seemed easier for her to simply stay the night in the motel room rather than heading home.
The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision.
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