Австралиялық қылмыскер Брэдли Джон Мёрдок және Питер Фальконио ісі

Australian murderer

Bradley John Murdoch (born 19 February 1958) is an Australian criminal serving life imprisonment for the July 2001 murder of English backpacker Peter Falconio in Australia. He will be 74 when eligible for parole in 2032. Murdoch is being held in Darwin Correctional Centre in Darwin, Northern Territory. He has lodged two appeals against his conviction, both of which were unsuccessful. The High Court of Australia refused special leave to appeal on 21 June 2007. He is forbidden to talk to the press.

Murdoch was born on 19 February 1958 in Geraldton, Western Australia, an unexpected third son (the others were aged 11 and 14) to parents Colin Murdoch (a mechanic) and Nancy Murdoch (a hairdresser). He also began to display white supremacist tendencies (particularly in the wake of the 1992 Mabo decision), alongside a racist tattoo. In November 1995, Murdoch started a 21 month imprisonment for the 20 August 1995 drunken incident of shooting at people who were celebrating at an indigenous Australian rules football grand final match at Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. He was released after 15 months. In 2003, he was charged with two counts of rape of a 12 year old girl at Swan Reach, South Australia, but was acquitted of those and other charges.

Shortly after his acquittal for unrelated rape and abduction charges, 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 was heard before the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin, and began on 17 October 2005. Murdoch pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering Peter Falconio and assaulting and attempting to kidnap his girlfriend Joanne Lees. Murdoch was convicted on 13 December 2005 for Falconio's murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non parole period of 28 years. He was also convicted of other assault related charges on Joanne Lees. On 12 December 2006, he appealed against his life sentence in the Supreme Court, claiming 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. The appeal was dismissed on 10 January 2007. 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. An appeal to the High Court was unsuccessful. He launched another appeal to the Northern Territory criminal court of appeal in 2013; the appeal was later withdrawn by his lawyers in March of 2014

In June 2020, a four part documentary TV series was aired on UK TV Channel 4 entitled Murder in the Outback: The Falconio and Lees Mystery.