Fed: Falconio murderer launches appeal next week

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-2006
Fed: Falconio murderer launches appeal next week

CANBERRA, Dec 9 AAP - Bradley John Murdoch, the man convicted of murdering Briton Peter
Falconio in the NT outback, will launch an appeal next week.

The case will be heard in the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal in Darwin,
starting on Tuesday and running for three days.

Murdoch, 48, is serving a life sentence after a Northern Territory jury convicted him
of the murder of Mr Falconio, who was shot dead on a remote stretch of road near Barrow
Creek, about 300 kilometres north of Alice Springs, on July 14, 2001.

He was also convicted of abducting and assaulting Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Ms Lees managed to escape and was a key prosecution witness at his trial.

Murdoch, who made no admissions and always denied murdering Mr Falconio, was sentenced
on December 13 last year but promptly appealed.

The appeal is understood to centre on Ms Lees' evidence, with Murdoch's lawyer set
to argue it was unreliable and should have been excluded.

Neither Murdoch nor Ms Lees are expected to attend the appeal hearing.

AAP mb/jjs/cdh

KEYWORD: MURDOCH

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