OPINION: The murder of British tourist Grace Millane has dominated the news again.

One would think she's been the only person murdered in New Zealand. Sarah Baker, a lecturer in the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology recently commented in the media on the Xi Wang murder case. Xi Wang, 34, was murdered in her Flatbush home a few days after Millane's body was found in the Waitākere Range.

Baker stated: "I thought it was very interesting as to why this victim [Xi Wang] is not given the same coverage. Because when you think about it... you could equally argue how could this young immigrant woman not be allowed to be safe in New Zealand? She should have been safe. What's going to happen to her child?

"Unfortunately I think we're not very good at dealing with certain members and groups of the population who don't seem to get same kind of sympathy and empathy as other people."

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David White stuff.co.nz Detective Inspector Scott Beard, who led the Grace Millane murder investigation, says "rough sex" is not a defence to murder.

The circumstances, one could argue, are different in that Millane had met her killer through the Tinder dating app. Perhaps that's the reason with the media's obsession with Millane.

Someone from overseas meets another person through Tinder and then gets murdered. Fair enough.

No, not quite. You see, if being murdered because you met someone on Tinder qualifies for media obsession, then Sandeep Dhiman should have received the same media coverage. Who is Dhiman?

If you don't know then I've proven my point. If you do know who he is, then compare news results in Google of "Sandeep Dhiman" and "Grace Millane" and see who has the most coverage from New Zealand media outlets. Point proven, again. A Google Trends comparison of the two names between November 2018 and now says it all.

You see, Dhiman, a male Indian national who had come to New Zealand to pursue studies and job opportunities, also met someone on Tinder. The female he met had set up a trap. To cut a long story short, Dhiman was stabbed nine times in the back, throat, heart and chest. He was stabbed with such force that the blade of the knife broke from the handle.

Afterwards, he was kicked in the head and stomped on his face until his killer thought he was dead.

Dhiman's murder occurred in December 2017, just a year before the murder of Millane. So, what's the difference between the murders?

Perhaps the media have a fetish for fetishes. Millane's fetish for BDSM – an acronym that stands for bondage, domination and submission, sadism and masochism – was reported. The media reported Millane had sexual fantasy chats with men, including hundreds of messages with at least two men, where she assumed the position of a submissive partner and expressed interest in being fully restrained and blindfolded. She had been active on BDSM site Whiplr only an hour before meeting the killer.

Evidence in court was given by a man who had sex with Millane on the same day she had sex with her killer, and the night before. Perhaps Dhiman wasn't promiscuous enough for his murder to grab the spotlight and become a household name. If only he had engaged with lots of females for his sexual gratification online and in the real world, then perhaps his murder would have received the amount of attention Millane's has. Who knows?

Maybe it has nothing to do at all with sexual fetishes and sexual histories. I just can't think of any other reason why the media would have an obsession with the murder of a British woman ahead of the murder of an Indian man. I mean, what other reasons are there? Hmm… let me think: Britain, India.

Also, I'm still waiting for the police detective in charge of Dhiman's murder investigation to cry in front of the media like Detective Inspector Scott Beard did for Millane. Actually, come to think of it, I have no idea who the detective was who headed Dhiman's case.

Speaking of Beard, I sincerely hope in the future police keep their views to themselves regarding their opinions of the law. Beard should never have appeared in the media, like he did last week, when he said "I don't believe that rough sex should be a defence" in relation to the Millane case.

Police are paid by us to enforce the law, not to have a public opinion of it. A private opinion, yes. A public opinion, no. This relates not just to this case, but to the law across the land.

Steve Elers is a senior lecturer at Massey University, who writes a weekly column for Stuff on social and cultural issues.