On 1 December 2018, 22-year-old British backpacker Grace Millane was last seen in Auckland, New Zealand, before her body was found a week later.
Prosecutors allege that Millane was strangled to death in the man's apartment after the two met on the dating app Tinder.
The defence claim the death was an accident during consensual sex, saying 'acts designed to enhance sexual pleasure went wrong.'
Grace Millane's parents, David and Gillian, sat in the front row of the public gallery as the prosecution, and then the defence, set out their versions of what happened to their daughter.
David Millane occasionally glanced across at the man accused of Grace's murder, while Gillian winced as a police officer described how her daughter's body was positioned in the suitcase uncovered in a shallow grave.
Despite the agonising details about what happened in their daughter's final hours, the Millanes sat dignified, closely following the evidence from the back of the room.
On 6 November 2019, the first evidence was presented in the trial of the suspect, who has not been named.
