THE man accused of murdering backpacker Grace Millane told a woman he was out with hours after the Wickford woman died that he “really wanted to find a big bag with wheels on it”.

The jury was also shown CCTV of the alleged killer transporting a suitcase containing the backpacker’s body.

Crown prosecutors allege that on the night of December 1 last year - the eve of Miss Millane’s 22nd birthday - the man, 27, strangled the young Brit to death in his Auckland apartment after the pair spent the night drinking.

He admits his actions killed Miss Millane but argues her death was an accident.

After her death, he stuffed Miss Millane’s body into a suitcase and dumped it in a shallow grave amongst some bush in Auckland’s Waitākere Ranges.

In the latest day of the trial, jurors saw how CCTV captured her date, a 27-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons, buying a suitcase and a shovel before moving her body in a red Toyota hatchback.

He had rented the vehicle the day she died.

CCTV showed defendant wheeling a luggage trolley into a lift at the CityLife hotel in central Auckland.

He returned with the trolley carrying two suitcases, one of which he has since admitted contained the body of Miss Millane.

Jurors were also shown images of the moment detectives found the suitcase with Miss Millane’s body inside buried in a wooded area outside Auckland.

The woman with whom the accused went out with December 2 spoke to the jury at length.

She told how, during small talk, the man calmly recounted a story of a man who had accidentally killed a woman during sex and had been prosecuted.

She told the court: “It’s crazy how guys can make one wrong move and go to jail for the rest of their life.”

Earlier in the day, the court heard how the defendant lied to police, before being shown CCTV footage contradicting his account.

He claimed during a police interview, that he said goodbye to Miss Millane and carried on drinking with friends.

But officers showed the man a photograph which showed him entering the hotel where he lived at 8.15am with a suitcase.

The trial, which will last more than a month, continues.