An Australian man (47) has today been found guilty by the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio.
Bradley Murdoch was also convicted of abducting and assaulting Mr Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The minimum term will be set at a later date.
Bradley Murdoch, 47, of Broome, Western Australia, who has been found guilty of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio and abducting and assaulting his girlfriend Joanne Lees, on a remote stretch of desert highway in the Australian Outback more than four years ago
Murdoch, of Broome, Western Australia, denied murdering the British backpacker and abducting his Ms Lees on a remote stretch of desert highway in the Australian Outback more than four years ago.
The jury which has heard the case over the last nine weeks at the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, was told to put emotions aside, reject "flamboyant" suggestions of counsel, and concentrate on the evidence.
It was established that Murdoch (47) flagged the couple down in their orange camper van, and shot Mr Falconio before threatening Miss Lees, now 32, with a gun to her head before tying her hands behind her back on the Stuart Highway, about 200 miles north of Alice Springs, on July 14th, 2001.
Ms Lees managed to escape and hide in the bush for more than five hours on the moonless night before being rescued. Mr Falconio (28) disappeared, and his body has never been found.
The six men and six women jurors retired at 12.51pm local time on day 37 of the trial.
Chief Justice Brian Martin had urged the jury to reject comments by defence counsel that expert witnesses had been wrong in previous cases and that the jury did not need scientists from Britain telling "colonials" they were right because they were the experts.