‘I don’t believe Murdoch is guilty’
THE stepfather of Peter Falconio’s girlfriend has said he is convinced that the man convicted of killing the 28-year-old from Huddersfield is innocent.
In 2001, Peter and his girlfriend Joanne Lees, then 27, were travelling through the Australian outback but the pair never made it back home together.
Joanne told police that a man driving a Ute truck tried to kidnap her and murdered Peter on a remote stretch of the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek, north of Alice Springs, but to this day, no body has ever been found.
Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of murdering Peter and assaulting Joanne and was sentenced to life in prison in 2005.
Murdoch, now 62, is believed to have hidden Peter’s body, which has never been found despite extensive searches.
Joanne’s stepfather, Vincent James, has now revealed that his opinion has changed after watching Channel 4’s documentary series Murder in the Outback, which aired last month.
“I’m convinced Bradley Murdoch is innocent, I didn’t at the time but I do now,” Mr James told News Corp.
“I watched the programme and [from] all the forensic evidence it would appear that he’s not guilty.”
“At the time when I was there I thought he was guilty but now I don’t.”
A former lawyer who has studied the case for eight years with his colleague claimed in the programme that Murdoch is not guilty.
Andrew Fraser said that despite the court’s findings there is “hole after hole” in the evidence – enough to indicate Murdoch could be innocent.
Murdoch, who has always maintained his innocence, is unable to apply for parole until he reveals the location of Peter’s body.
Viewers of the four-part-documentary were also left stunned when a person claiming to be a friend of Peter’s suggested he had committed life insurance fraud.
Police in Australia have discounted suggestions he faked his own death.
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