AUSTRALIA: A mystery which began with the disappearance of a British backpacker on a dark, lonely highway in the central Australian desert was solved after four years yesterday when a drug-running outback drifter was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Peter Falconio.
After eight hours of deliberation, a jury unanimously convicted Bradley Murdoch (47) of murdering Mr Falconio, assaulting his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, and attempting to abduct her at a remote spot north of Alice Springs in July 2001. Murdoch will serve a minimum of 20 years in jail.
Murdoch, a former mechanic from the Australian coastal town of Broome, was taking a 10kg consignment of marijuana 2,000 miles across Australia when he spotted the British couple.
They were driving a battered orange camper van around the country as part of a round-the-world trip.
High on amphetamines, Murdoch flagged them down, shot Mr Falconio and tied up Miss Lees, but she escaped and hid in nearby scrubland for five hours before emerging, bloodied and terrified, to be rescued by a passing lorry driver. Mr Falconio's body has never been found.
Yesterday's verdict sparked relief and jubilation at the supreme court of the Northern Territory in Darwin.
A tearful Ms Lees hugged Mr Falconio's two brothers and his parents, Joan and Luciano, who attended every day of the eight-week trial.
Speaking outside the court, Ms Lees (32) appealed to her boyfriend's killer to reveal where he had hidden the body. "I would like Bradley John Murdoch to seriously consider telling me, Joan and Luciano what he has done with Pete."
In the days which followed her ordeal in the desert, Ms Lees faced sceptical questions from the media about her account.
She said she was "obviously delighted" about the verdict but criticised a glut of books which are soon to be published about the case, saying she had not co-operated with any of them.
Standing at 200 cm (6ft 5in) and known to his friends as "Big Brad", Murdoch was already known to the police. He had served a jail term for shooting at a group of Aborigines celebrating victory in a football match.
The key to the prosecution case against him was a smudge of blood found on the back of Ms Lees's T-shirt. A police forensics expert said it was 150 million billion times more likely to come from Murdoch than from anybody else.
The defence however was able to show that police had failed to log the handling of this evidence. Murdoch's lawyer suggested his client's DNA could have been planted by detectives. Murdoch's defence counsel, Grant Algie, said he would seek leave to appeal.