The man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane has been called a “scumbag” by a member of the public gallery during his court appearance.

His appearance came as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern apologised to the young woman’s family, saying the nation felt “shame” over her death.

The 26-year-old suspect appeared at Auckland District Court on Monday morning, where he was granted interim name suppression after an appeal by his lawyer.

He sat just metres away from Ms Millane’s father and uncle during the hearing.

Judge Thomas acknowledged the Millane family, who were present in court, and said he recognised the “desperate” grief they must be feeling.

“All of us hope that this is a fair, swift process and brings you some peace,” Judge Evangelo Thomas said.

The circumstances surrounding Ms Millane’s disappearance and death are still not yet clear.

She was last seen arriving at the central CityLife Hotel with the suspect.

Ms Millane, an advertising graduate and artist from Essex, was on the second leg of a year-long world tour after graduating from university.

Her body was found by police on the outskirts of Auckland on Sunday after she went missing in the city on December 1, the day before her 22nd birthday.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has an emotional apology to Ms Millane’s family, saying her nation feels a collective shame over the young woman’s death.

Ms Ardern held back tears as she opened a press conference with an apology.

“From the Kiwis I have spoken to there is this overwhelming sense of hurt and shame that this has happened in our country, a place that prides itself on our hospitality ... especially to those who are visiting our shores,” she said.

“On behalf of New Zealand, I want to apologise to Grace’s family. Your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn’t and I’m sorry for that.” The government had offered its support to the Millane family, Ms Ardern said. “I cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they will be experiencing.” Her sentiment echoed widespread shock among much of the public in New Zealand, where killings by strangers are uncommon and the yearly number of homicides has been fewer than 50 since 2010.

Earlier, Ms Millane’s brother, Declan, posted a series of photos to Instagram in a moving tribute, captioning the post with the lyrics to You Are My Sunshine.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away,” he wrote.

Detective Inspector Scott Beard said the investigation will continue for some time but the current focus is to “piece together exactly what happened to a young girl who came to New Zealand.”

A post-mortem was expected to be carried out on Monday.

“We will be pleased to be giving Grace back to her family,” Det Insp Beard said.

Ms Millane’s father, millionaire English property developer David Millane, travelled from Britain to New Zealand earlier in the week.

He made an emotional public appeal for help in finding Grace, who he described as a “lovely, outgoing, fun- loving, family-orientated daughter”.

Earlier, it was revealed that Ms Millane had been staying at a backpacker hostel in Auckland and left some of her belongings there.

However, police said several of her possessions, including her passport, are missing.

“Several of her belongings, including her passport, are missing and police believe it is likely that Grace has these items with her,” a police statement said.

Detective Beard said she met a man for a couple of hours on Saturday evening before surveillance cameras showed them entering the CityLife hotel at about 9.40pm.

Her birthday was on Sunday, but she didn’t contact her family. Five days later, on Friday, David Millane arrived in New Zealand and spoke with media.

“Grace is a lovely, outgoing, fun-loving, family-oriented daughter,” he said, adding that she was usually in touch with her family every day.

“She arrived here on the 20th of November, and has been bombarding us with numerous photographs and messages of her adventures,” Mr Millane said.

“We are all extremely upset, and it’s very difficult at this time to fully describe the range of emotions we are going through.”