THE man accused of murdering Grace Millane told cops she asked him to choke her during sex because she was a fan of the 50 Shades of Grey films.

The defendant told detectives in a police interview the 22-year-old Brit backpacker initiated violent sex with him.

Interview footage played to a court in Auckland, New Zealand, showed the killer claiming he and Grace had sex before he went for a shower and then to bed – unaware she was dead on the floor.

In a police interview two days earlier he claimed he had parted from Grace on the street after their Tinder date on December 1 last year.

But in his second interview, the accused – who denies murder – said he had strangled her to death accidentally during sex before panicking and burying the body inside a suitcase in a shallow grave.

The heavily-built defendant, 27, described Grace, from Wickford, Essex, initiating "rough sex" with him.

He said: "Grace asked me to turn the TV off – I had the music channel on but she asked me to turn it off, so I turned it off.

"She started talking to me about 50 Shades of Grey. It’s a sex fantasy movie that’s out.

"She told me there’s a few things she likes doing and that she’d done with her ex partner and we started having sex. At first it was just normal. It was very placid."

He claimed the pair had "violent sex" which involved Grace asking him to choke her before he went to have a shower as she lay on the floor in the dark.

HE said: "At first it was just normal, it was very placid, and then she asked me if we could get into bondage and she started biting and then she asked me to bite her and so I did.

"I stopped at first and said, ‘Is this something you really want to do?’ and she said, ‘We are in the moment, let’s just go with it’.

"I said I’m new to all that sort of stuff. I’m used to having sex that is just sex and at first I was uncomfortable but I liked it so I was open to the idea.

"She told me to hold her arms tighter and then she told me to hold her throat."

The defendant added: "Then all I remember is falling asleep in the shower and then waking up, it would’ve been…it was still dark.

"I crawled back into bed. Initially I thought Grace had left.

"I was obviously asleep in bed and I woke up the next day and I saw that she was lying on the floor.

"I saw that she had blood coming from her nose. I screamed I yelled out at her. I tried to move her to see if she was awake.

He started dialling an ambulance – but said: "I didn’t hit the button because I was scared how bad it looked. There’s a dead person in my room. I thought it looked terrible.

The killer told cops through tears he was “terrified” and “in shock” and “didn’t know what to do” before admitting he went out to buy a suitcase to put her body in.

He later claimed he tried to take his own life with a pill overdose.

He said: “I remember putting Grace in the suitcase. I was just in shock the whole time, I couldn’t put her in it, it just didn’t seem right.

“It just didn’t seem right. So I left and Grace was half in half out of the suitcase at that stage because I couldn’t do it.

“I left to go and get cleaning products then I remember coming back and I messaged a friend to catch up because it didn’t feel real.

“The whole thing didn’t seem real. I kept thinking she’s going to wake up, she’s going to be okay."

SUITCASE COFFIN

Describing the moment he shut Grace inside the case, the defendant said: “I got back to CityLife and I spewed up a few times because I couldn’t put Grace in the bag.

“All I could think about was what we shared the night before and then I put her in the bag.

“And at the time I just kept saying, I’m sorry…I’m sorry.

“Then I went downstairs and I grabbed the porter thing and I put the suitcase on top of the porter thing with an empty suitcase and my bag.”

He went on to say he slept in the hire car before driving out of town where he picked up a shovel then drove to Waitakere Ranges, where he buried the suitcase.

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He said he had invented his previous, bogus account, because: “I was still shocked and I apologise for misleading.”

The defendant denies murder and says Grace's death was an accident.

The trial continues.

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