Grace Millane murder: Woman says she was due to go on date with suspect on night of backpacker's disappearance
A former sports teammate of the New Zealand man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane on Tuesday described him as being “creepy towards girls”.
Jesse Kempson was a "weird guy", according to the softball teammate, who said he warned women off spending time with the suspect.
“He was a different sort of character,” said the man, who spoke to the MailOnline on condition his name was not published.
“He was creepy towards girls. His life revolved around girls, taking to girls.”
Mr Kempson, 26, is currently in custody after appearing in court on Monday.
It also emerged on Tuesday that another woman was due to go out on a date with Mr Kempson on the night of Ms Millane’s death.
Ms Millane, from Essex, was last seen at about 9.40pm on December 1 in the company of a man at the CityLife hotel in Auckland, not far from the hostel she was staying at, which is located on the road Mr Kempson lived on.
The woman said she was in contact with Mr Kempson for six months through a dating app and had been scheduled to meet him for the first time on December 1, but had to postpone.
The defendant was listed on a charge sheet as residing at the hotel.
The 30-year-old woman, who said she did not want to be named, told New Zealand media she had been due to meet Mr Kempson on Tuesday this week and wondered why he had not been in touch to confirm a location.
"I'm quite upset," the woman told the Stuff website, saying she had been informed by police on Monday what had happened. "Obviously angels were watching over me."
She said he had seemed like 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."
It emerged on Monday that Mr Kempson left a comment underneath one of Ms Millane's Facebook pictures calling her: "Beautiful very radiant" (sic) just 11 minutes before she was last seen.
A former flatmate of Mr Kempson has said she and her friends told him to leave their apartment after two weeks because they felt uncomfortable about him.
The man was very active on dating apps and they started to question what he was doing for work, the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told RNZ.
"So we just kinda started to have a few questions after only a couple of days," she said. "We finally built up the courage because it was a bit scary, just us three girls asking him to leave when we felt a little bit uncomfortable with him. But he said that his mother had died and that he was going back to Sydney.
The Telegraph has also learned of how Mr Kempson spent around eight weeks living in a Wellington boarding house in 2011.
Its then owner claims the alleged killer left without ever paying rent, after saying he was playing for the national softball team who had yet to pay him.
“Basically he charmed me. We had conversations and whatnot and he seemed like a pretty lovely guy," he said. "I didn’t jump on him - he was a young guy, I was trying to cut him some slack."
He told the Telegraph that he eventually asked to speak with Mr Kempson’s manager, to get some confirmation of the promised funds’ existence.
He claims that he gave him a fake number, “scribbled down to get me out of his room”. The landlord said he managed to track down a phone number for the Black Sox, who he claimed “had never heard of the guy”.
Police investigating the murder of Ms Millane are looking for a shovel believed to be connected to the inquiry.
Detective Inspector Scott Beard addressed speculation about the case and said the University of Lincoln graduate's body was found "intact" and said officers were looking for a long-handle shovel.
He said: "At this point we don't know where this item is".
David Millane, Grace's father, has flown to New Zealand and visited the place where the body was found.
He took part in a traditional Maori blessing ceremony alongside Ms Millane’s uncle and members of the New Zealand police force.
