Peter Falconio
Encyclopedia
Peter Marco Falconio was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 tourist who disappeared in the Australian outback in July 2001, while travelling with girlfriend Joanne Lees
Joanne Lees
Joanne Rachael Lees is a British woman who is most notable for being the girlfriend of Peter Falconio at the time of his murder on a remote stretch of highway near Barrow Creek in outback Northern Territory, Australia on 14 July 2001...

 and is now
presumed dead.

He was 28 years old at the time of the disappearance. Falconio's body has never been found. Bradley John Murdoch
Bradley John Murdoch
Bradley John Murdoch is serving life imprisonment for the July 2001 murder of English backpacker Peter Falconio in Australia. He will be 74 when eligible for parole. Murdoch is being held in Alice Springs Correctional Centre in Alice Springs. He has lodged two appeals against his conviction; both...

 was convicted of his murder on 13 December 2005. The case attracted considerable public and legal attention worldwide.

Early life

He was born on 20 September 1972 in Hepworth
Hepworth
- Places :* Hepworth, Suffolk* Hepworth, West Yorkshire * Hepworth, Ontario- People :* Dame Barbara Hepworth, British sculptor and artist* Cecil Hepworth, British film director, producer and scriptwriter...

, Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....

, in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, to Joan (née Reynolds) and Luciano Falconio, an Italian immigrant. Falconio had three brothers, Nicholas, Paul & Mark Falconio. Peter was a graduate of University of Brighton
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...

.

Missing person or murder?

Lees stated that while travelling at night along the Stuart Highway
Stuart Highway
The Stuart Highway is one of Australia's major highways. It is a segment of Australia's Highway 1 extending from Darwin, Northern Territory, in the north, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta, South Australia, in the south—a distance of...

 near Barrow Creek (between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek) in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

 on 14 July 2001, the pair were stopped by a man waving for the couple to stop their Volkswagen Type 2
Volkswagen Type 2
The Volkswagen Type 2, officially known as the Transporter or Kombi informally as Bus or Camper , was a panel van introduced in 1950 by German automaker Volkswagen as its second car model – following and initially deriving from Volkswagen's first model, the Type 1 , it was given the factory...

 "Kombi" van and indicating trouble with their vehicle's exhaust
Exhaust system
An exhaust system is usually tubing used to guide reaction exhaust gases away from a controlled combustion inside an engine or stove. The entire system conveys burnt gases from the engine and includes one or more exhaust pipes...

. Falconio got out of the van to investigate, and shortly afterward Lees heard what she believed was a backfire
Backfire
The word backfire in general use usually refers to a plan where the opposite of the desired effect happens or the perpetrator is directly affected as opposed to their intended target.In economics, backfire is described in terms of:* the Jevons paradox...

. Later, she believed that Falconio had been shot. Earlier that evening, they had passed a burning branch in the middle of the road. Lees remembers this as being 'abnormal' and of notable significance, as they had not seen this before and she considered it to be a warning of what may have happened. However, in Australia it is not unusual in dry country, particularly in the winter and spring for fires to start by vehicle exhausts or carelessly thrown cigarettes.

At the committal hearing in December 2004 Lees told the court that her assailant then tied her wrists together behind her, put a sack over her head and forced her into his ute (pick-up truck). She also stated that the person forced her between the seats of his vehicle and into the rear of his vehicle. She said she escaped from his ute and fled into the dark, hiding under bushes, while he tried to find her with a torch. Expert Aboriginal tracker
Aboriginal tracker
In the years following British settlement in Australia, aboriginal trackers or black trackers, as they became known, were enlisted by settlers to assist them in navigating their way through the Australian landscape...

s, called from a nearby settlement could find no sign of tracks other than Lees' in the vicinity. Tracker Teddy Egan stated, "I see tracks where she run and fall down beneath tree. She lie there, hiding". It was also noted that a pool of Falconio's blood that had been covered in soil had attracted no ants or flies, considered to be much more out of the ordinary by Territorians than a roadside fire.

Falconio's body has not been found despite a massive police search. Much doubt has been cast on how Lees may have been able to escape from her bindings, as when she flagged down a passing truck for assistance, her hands were in front of her body. Lees however was able to demonstrate in court how easily she was able to bring her bound hands from behind to front. Police, however, found no vehicle that was able to be accessed from the front seats to the rear canopy area without leaving the vehicle.

Some two years after the disappearance, Bradley John Murdoch
Bradley John Murdoch
Bradley John Murdoch is serving life imprisonment for the July 2001 murder of English backpacker Peter Falconio in Australia. He will be 74 when eligible for parole. Murdoch is being held in Alice Springs Correctional Centre in Alice Springs. He has lodged two appeals against his conviction; both...

, a man living in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

 and previously acquitted of a rape charge, was found to have a possible connection to Barrow Creek on 14 July 2001. Murdoch was found not guilty of the rape but Northern Territory police applied for extradition to face charges of abduction and murder. Lees identified his photograph as being the man who abducted her after being shown a photograph of a person in custody in Adelaide by a journalist in the UK, and the DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 from the bloodstains on Lees' clothing matched Murdoch's DNA.

Trial of Bradley Murdoch

Bradley Murdoch's jury trial
Jury trial
A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge...

 began on 18 October 2005 in the Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

 branch of the Northern Territory Supreme Court, where he was tried for the murder of Falconio and assaults on Joanne Lees. The trial concluded in May 2006 with the conviction of Murdoch on all counts. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 28 years.

Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions
Director of Public Prosecutions
The Director of Public Prosecutions is the officer charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world...

 Rex Wild
Rex Wild
Rex Wild, QC is a former Director of Public Prosecutions for the Northern Territory of Australia. He was appointed to the position in 1998, retiring in 2006...

 said in court there are three pieces of evidence linking Murdoch to the scene of the crime. His DNA was a match with bloodstains on Joanne Lees' t-shirt, a smear of blood on the gearstick of the couple's car, and DNA located on tape used by the killer to bind her wrists. These assertions have all been disputed by Murdoch's defence team.

To cope with the demands of the trial and the huge media contingent covering the trial proceedings, the Darwin branch of the Northern Territory Supreme Court was refitted at a cost of A$900,000.

Defence's closing argument

Grant Algie and Mark Twiggs, the lawyers representing the accused, Bradley John Murdoch, argued the following:
Algie and Twiggs pointed to the absence of blood at the crime scene, the mix-ups with DNA, the lack of a body, apparent sightings of Falconio in the days thereafter, inconsistencies in Lees' testimony, the poor police procedures in handling evidence, and the lack of a positive identification of Bradley John Murdoch.

The defence suggested that sometimes, for reasons best known to themselves, people just disappear. The defence said that sometimes they are found again, sometimes not.

Prosecution's closing argument

Rex Wild stated that this is what really happened:
Wild suggested that there was no evidence whatsoever of any police corruption, and urged jurors to dismiss any suggestions as an unfounded conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...

 that was "plucked out of thin air". He suggested that all of the evidence points to one obvious conclusion: that Murdoch killed Falconio. He stated that while no body has been found yet, it will be eventually, that it was only a matter of time, but that it "may be quite some time".

Wild stated that Joanne Lees should be expected to have mild discrepancies with Murdoch's appearance, such as the length and colour of his hair, not noticing his teeth, the description of his car, and other inconsistencies, because Lees was under a lot of stress and pressure during the incident.

He asked the jury to ignore the evidence of the sightings of Peter Falconio and to dismiss them as inaccurate, highlighting discrepancies in the stories of the various people who were said to have seen him alive in the days after the attack. He stated that the DNA did match, and that there was no chance that it was not Murdoch's DNA and hence the jury must find him guilty.

Wild said that Murdoch was a methodical killer, and that the crime was premeditated to "get rid of" someone, and suggested that he may have thought that Lees was travelling alone, since Falconio was asleep in the back when she drove by. Mr Wild stated that the methodical actions to get rid of any evidence suggesting Murdoch committed the offence, as well as quickly getting away suggests the acts of someone with extreme premeditation, and that it was the work of an obsessive methodical person, a man just like Murdoch.

Wild asked the jury to ignore coincidental evidence that seemed to suggest that Murdoch didn't do it, stating that he had ample time to change the evidence to fit the story, to later suggest that he didn't do it.

Chief Justice's summation

Chief Justice Brian Ross Martin, the trial judge, made the following instructions to the jury:
The judge said that if the jury was satisfied that the blood came from Murdoch, the Crown put the case that it was deposited while he was attacking Miss Lees.

Red Rooster claim

During Murdoch's committal hearing, Lees mentioned that she and Falconio had stopped at a Red Rooster
Red Rooster
Red Rooster is an Australian fast food restaurant chain. Red Rooster specialises in selling roasted chicken and other related products.- History :...

 restaurant in Alice Springs. Murdoch claimed to have stopped at the same restaurant to buy chicken
Chicken (food)
Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world, and is prepared as food in a wide variety of ways, varying by region and culture.- History :...

 for himself and his dog, "First thing in Alice, pulled into the Red Rooster... Chicken roll, box of nuggets for Jack...full chicken for the trip." Grant Algie suggested that Murdoch might have cut himself and inadvertently left blood at the restaurant which later transferred to Lees' shirt, explaining the presence of his DNA there.

In April 2006, The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...

reported that Murdoch had refused to be served chicken while incarcerated during the committal and trial, claiming he was allergic to it, and that he has a standing medical certificate at Berrimah Prison requesting that he never be served chicken.

Appeals

Subsequent to his conviction, Murdoch appealed the conviction and sentence. On 10 January 2007, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal (NT CCA) dismissed both limbs of the appeal.

Murdoch then applied for Special Leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia. On 21 June 2007, the High Court refused to grant Special Leave. Under the Australian judicial system, Murdoch has now exhausted all opportunities of appeal. Subsequent to the High Court of Australia refusing to grant Murdoch's application for Special Leave, there has been media speculation that Murdoch will lodge a further appeal. Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

-based QC Tom Percy is believed to be preparing Murdoch's appeal.

The appeal comes after the collapse of the case against Sean Hoey, who was acquitted in December 2007 of 58 charges, including 29 murders, related to the Omagh bombing
Omagh bombing
The Omagh bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army , a splinter group of former Provisional Irish Republican Army members opposed to the Good Friday Agreement, on Saturday 15 August 1998, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Twenty-nine people died as a...

 in 1998.
The NT Department of Public Prosecutions said they had not been notified of the action, and the Northern Territory Police would not comment.

Evidence against both Murdoch and Hoey was given by Dr Jonathan Whitaker of Britain's Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

-based Forensic Science Service using a controversial technique called low copy number DNA. At Hoey's trial in Belfast, however, several experts said the low copy number DNA technique used to identify the accused was unreliable, and the judge was highly critical in his assessment of Dr Whitaker's evidence. British police suspended use of the technique, but it has now been resumed following a review by the Crown Prosecution Service which concluded that "the CPS has not seen anything to suggest that any current problems exist with LCN". The findings have been questioned by other forensic experts, including Allan Jamieson, director of the Forensic Institute in Glasgow, who gave evidence at the Omagh trial questioning the validity of LCN.

Wolf Creek

In early 2005, the Australian horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 directed by Greg Mclean Wolf Creek
Wolf Creek (film)
Wolf Creek is a 2005 independent Australian horror film written, co-produced and directed by Greg McLean. The story revolves around three backpackers who find themselves held captive by a serial killer in the Australian outback...

was shown at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 and shown on national release in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 on 16 September 2005. It was released in Australia on 3 November 2005 (apart from the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

, where it was released in January 2006 after the trial had finished so as not to influence the jury unduly). The film was advertised as being based on "true stories", although the producers have said that it is not directly linked to any specific stories.

Joanne Lees: Murder in The Outback

In March 2007, Channel Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 in Australia showed Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback
Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback
Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback is a television film produced by Channel Ten and ITV Productions, which first aired in Australia on Channel Ten on 18 March 2007 and in the UK on ITV on Sunday 8 April, where it was titled Murder In The Outback...

, an account of the murder, covering the period from the night of Falconio's death through to sentencing, from Joanne Lees
Joanne Lees
Joanne Rachael Lees is a British woman who is most notable for being the girlfriend of Peter Falconio at the time of his murder on a remote stretch of highway near Barrow Creek in outback Northern Territory, Australia on 14 July 2001...

' perspective. It was also shown by ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...

 in the UK on 8 April 2007, and by Tv1
TV1
TV1 may refer to:* TV1 , Australian cable and satellite television channel* TV One , New Zealand television network* TV1 , defunct Estonian television channel* TV1 , Lithuanian television channel...

 in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

on 10 June 2007.

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