Australian mechanic Bradley Murdoch has been jailed for life for the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio. The jury at the court in Darwin, Australia, also convicted him of abducting and assaulting Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Murdoch, 47, of Broome, Western Australia, had denied killing Mr Falconio, 28, on an outback highway north of Alice Springs in July 2001.

It took the 12 members of the jury eight hours to find Murdoch guilty.

On 14 July 2001 he flagged the couple down in their orange camper van, shooting Mr Falconio, of Hepworth, Huddersfield, and threatening Miss Lees by pointing a gun to her head before tying her up.

Tears

A total of 85 witnesses were called during the trial, including Miss Lees, now 32, and Murdoch.

During her evidence, Miss Lees, from Brighton, told how she managed to escape and hide in the bush for five hours before being rescued on the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs.

As the jury delivered its verdict, she burst into tears and slumped into the arms of one of Mr Falconio's brothers.

In his evidence, Murdoch admitted he was a drug smuggler who transported "large quantities" of cannabis through central Australia.

He also admitted to carrying firearms, but he was adamant that he was not a killer.

The jury disagreed, taking less than one day's deliberation to find him guilty.

Sentencing Murdoch, Judge Brian Martin told him: "There is only one judgment that is practised by the law in the Northern Territory and that is imprisonment for life."

The mechanic showed no reaction.

Critical question

Earlier, the jury were told that the absence of Mr Falconio's body did not prevent a guilty verdict after Judge Martin was asked to clarify the point.

He told the jury: "The absence of a body is not a bar to a guilty verdict of murder."

He said the critical question was whether the Crown had proved that Mr Falconio was killed and whether Mr Murdoch had killed him.

Murdoch was sentenced to life imprisonment with the minimum term to be set at a later date.

|BBC|

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