Bradley John Murdoch

Bradley John Murdoch
Bradley John Murdoch
Born	(1958-10-06) 6 October 1958 Northampton, Western Australia
Occupation	Mechanic Truck driver Murderer
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment 28 years non-parole period
Conviction(s)	Murder Deprivation of liberty Aggravated unlawful assault

Bradley John Murdoch (born 6th October 1958) 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.^[1] He has lodged two appeals against his conviction; both were unsuccessful. The High Court of Australia refused special leave to appeal on 21 June 2007.

Early life

Murdoch had previously lived in Broome, Western Australia and worked as a truck driver and mechanic.^{[citation needed]}

Previous arrests and convictions

• In 1980, aged 21, Murdoch received a suspended sentence after being convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.

• In 1995, Murdoch served 15 months imprisonment for shooting at people who were celebrating at an Australian rules football match in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.

• He was arrested in South Australia during August 2002 and was charged with various offences, one of which was a rape offence involving a 12 year old girl and her mother, for which he was acquitted.

Murdoch is a self-confessed drifter, drug runner, and regularly transported large amounts of cannabis between Alice Springs and Broome in Western Australia.

Peter Falconio murder

Murdoch was arrested in 2003 and charged with the murder of Peter Falconio on a remote part of the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek on 14 July 2001.

The case of the Queen vs Bradley John Murdoch was heard before the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin. The judge was Brian Ross Martin QC, Chief Justice of the Northern Territory.

Committal hearings began in December 2004, with a voir dire in April 2005, in which some prosecution evidence was removed (most notably, cable ties which were contaminated with DNA from the director of forensics).

The trial proper began on 18 October 2005. Early estimates had suggested that the trial would last from 6–8 weeks, ending in early-mid December 2005. The jury went out on 13 December 2005, and returned with a verdict of guilty on the same day, after 8 hours of deliberations.

Murdoch was also convicted of other assault-related charges on Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years.

Falconio's body has never been found.

Appeal

On 12 December 2006, Murdoch appealed against his life sentence in the Supreme Court. His lawyers lodged eight grounds of appeal. Murdoch claimed the evidence of Lees was tainted because she had seen a photograph of him on the internet before she was interviewed by police, as well as an article linking him to the murder.^[2]

The appeal was dismissed on 10 January 2007.^[3] An appeal to the High Court was unsuccessful.

Location of Peter Falconio's body

The location of Peter Falconio's body remains a mystery. However, in mid August 2007, some sections of the Australian media speculated that Murdoch might soon reveal the whereabouts of Falconio's remains. Specifically, the press mentioned that Murdoch did not enjoy the conditions of the Berrimah Prison, on the outskirts of Darwin, and might reveal the location of Falconio's body in exchange for a transfer to a prison in Western Australia, given that all avenues of appeal had been exhausted.^[4]

References

External links

• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 80 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 79 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 78 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 77 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 76 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 75 (15 December 2005)