Outback murder trial told victim staged own disappearance

Published on Tuesday 6 December 2005 02:11

BRITON Peter Falconio may have staged his own disappearance in the Australian Outback, a murder trial jury was told yesterday.

Barrister Grant Algie raised the prospect that Mr Falconio, of Huddersfield, could still be alive as he summed up the defence case at the trial of Bradley Murdoch, 47, of Broome, Western Australia.

Murdoch denies murdering Mr Falconio, who was 28, and abducting and assaulting his girlfriend Joanne Lees after flagging down the couple's orange camper van on a remote stretch of road on 14 July, 2001.

Mr Algie told the jury at the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin that "from time to time some people disappear themselves for reasons best known to them".

He also suggested officers from the Northern Territory Police "manipulated the evidence" to make the case against Murdoch stronger than it was.

The court has heard that the couple were attacked on the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek, about 200 miles north of Alice Springs.

The prosecution claims Mr Falconio, whose body has never been found, was shot dead and Miss Lees, 32, a care worker, was threatened with a gun, tied with her hands behind her back and put into the back of her attacker's vehicle.

She told police she managed to escape and hide in the bush for more than five hours before being rescued.

Mr Algie said: "You might think that if Mr Falconio had been killed that night, as the prosecution assert, they would have found his body.

"There's very little opportunity to get rid of a body too far away from the Stuart Highway itself. The searches undertaken by police were extensive, you might think.

"The absence of a body is a legitimate basis for serious concern when you are asked to return a verdict of murder."

He said there was no evidence a gun was even fired, saying no projectile was found and although the camper van was swabbed for gunshot residue, the swabs were never tested because there was nothing to suggest a gun had been fired.

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict early next week.