LONDON — A New Zealand man was found guilty of murder on Friday in the killing of Grace Millane, a British backpacker whose death last year rattled the nation and prompted soul searching in a country where such cases are rare.

Prosecutors told the court that the two had met on the Tinder dating app and that the man, a 27-year-old, strangled Ms. Millane, 22, in a hotel room in Auckland in December 2018. They said he hid her body in a suitcase before burying her remains in a forest on the outskirts of the city.

In his testimony, the suspect, whose name could not be released by law, claimed that Ms. Millane had died accidentally during “rough sex,” but the court rejected that explanation, according to The New Zealand Herald.

The prosecution, laying out a very different narrative, described him as exhibiting a pattern of violence against women and a “morbid sexual interest.”