Stepdad flips on Falconio murder
THE stepfather of British tourist Joanne Lees, whose boyfriend Peter Falconio was murdered in the Australian outback, believes killer Bradley John Murdoch is innocent.
In a sensational about face, Vincent James, who visited Australia after his stepdaughter was kidnapped by Murdoch, said he had changed his mind on his guilt.
“I’m convinced Bradley Murdoch is innocent, I didn’t at the time but I do now,” he said at his home this week.
Mr Falconio and Ms Lees were backpacking in 2001 when they were pulled over at the side of the road outside Barrow Creek in central Australia. Bradley John Murdoch, a truck driver, was found guilty of the murder in 2005.
The jury accepted that he shot Mr Falconio, 28, at the back of their orange Kombi van when he had pulled them over telling them there was a problem with the vehicle.
But Mr James, who still lives in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, where Ms Lees and Mr Falconio grew up, said he now had his doubts. He said he had changed his mind after watching a four-part documentary on British television in June.
The program, which interviewed disgraced lawyer Andrew Fraser, raised questions about Murdoch’s case, despite a Northern Territory court sentencing him to life in jail, with a minimum of 28 years.
The killer’s earliest release date is 2032, however the Northern Territory passed “no body, no parole” law in 2016, targeted at Murdoch in the hope he would finally provide details of where to find Mr Falconio’s remains.
“I watched the program and all the forensic evidence it would appear that he’s not guilty,” Mr James said.
“At the time when I was there I thought he was guilty but now I don’t.”
Mr James said he travelled to Australia when details of the case emerged after Ms Lees, whose hands were bound, managed to escape from Murdoch, who is now 62, and hid for five hours in saltbush on the side of the road.