The New Zealand man who murdered British backpacker Grace Millane committed violent sex crimes against two other women, a court revealed Tuesday, as the killer was publicly named for the first time.

People exercise on the waterfront on May 13 in Wellington, New Zealand. Photo: VCG

The Supreme Court overturned orders banning Jesse Shane Kempson being identified as the predator who strangled Millane in December 2018 after the pair met through the online dating app Tinder.

The murder shocked New Zealand, which is usually regarded as a safe place to travel, prompting a tearful apology to Millane's family from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after the young traveler's body was found. 

The suppression orders on reporting Kempson's name remained in place even after his murder conviction in November 2019, with the court offering no explanation at the time for the highly unusual move. But a judgement released Tuesday revealed that he was still awaiting trial on a string of sexual offenses when the Millane verdict came in, and the court feared naming him could prejudice those proceedings.

It said the killer had since faced separate trials in October and November, and been found guilty at both. 

In the first, he was convicted of sexual violation, assault and threatening to kill his former partner. The second resulted in a rape conviction involving another woman that Kempson met on Tinder. 

Sentencing for those crimes has not yet been delivered.
Newspaper headline: NZ backpacker killer named for first time