Murdoch found guilty of outback murder

British couple Joanne Lees (left) and Peter Falconio pose in their van before driving to outback Australia. File picture / Reuters

DARWIN - An Australian jury found a truck driver guilty last night of murdering British tourist Peter Falconio, whose body has never been found, and abducting his girlfriend on a lonely stretch of outback highway in 2001.

Northern Territory Supreme Court Judge Brian Martin immediately sentenced Bradley John Murdoch to a mandatory life sentence for the murder.

"I entirely agree with your verdict," Martin told the jury.

Martin then turned to Murdoch and said: "There is only one penalty sanctioned by the law of the Northern Territory and that is life in prison."

Murdoch flagged down Falconio and his British girlfriend Joanne Lees, claiming smoke was coming from the back of their van, as they drove along the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory in July 2001, the court was told during the trial.

The prosecution said when Falconio went to the rear of the van, Murdoch shot him, but his body was never found.

Lees told the court Murdoch then put a gun to her head and bound her wrists with homemade handcuffs, but she escaped into bushes.

Lees, in court to hear the verdict, collapsed into the arms of Falconio's brother Paul when the jury read out its decision.

Outside the court Lees publicly asked Murdoch to reveal where he had hidden Falconio's body.

"I would like Bradley John Murdoch to seriously consider telling me...what he has done with Pete," Lees told reporters.

"Today marks the conclusion of an intense period of stress for myself and the Falconio family. This will enable us to take another step in the grieving process for Pete."

But Falconio's father Luciano said there could be no closure until the family had found his son's body.

The case was adjourned until Thursday when the judge will consider setting a minimum jail term before parole can be sought.

During his eight-week trial Murdoch said he was hundreds of kilometres away, crossing a harsh outback desert, at the time of the crime. But scientific experts said his DNA matched that found in blood on Lees' T-shirt and the couple's van.

"I remember tasting blood in my mouth," Lees told the court as she explaining how she fought to free herself from Murdoch.

"I was lifting my hands up, trying to hit him in the crotch. He punched me in my right temple. It stunned me. I was screaming for Peter to come and help me," she said.

Lees said Murdoch put a sack over her head and pushed her into his truck. Lying there she cried out to her attacker, asking him whether she wanted money or planned to rape her.

Lees managed to slide off the back of the small truck and run into the bushes, where she cowered under scrub as Murdoch searched for her by torchlight. Finally, Murdoch drove off and Lees eventually flagged down a passing truck.

The outback murder trial attracted international media attention not seen for 20 years since the Lindy Chamberlain "dingo murder" conviction.

Chamberlain, who claimed a dingo killed her baby Azaria while camping at Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock), was initially found guilty of murder but later cleared.

Murdoch's defence lawyer raised the botched Chamberlain case during the trial, trying to discredit the DNA evidence, saying scientific experts in that case were wrong.

He said the DNA may have accidentally contaminated Lees' shirt as both were in the same cafe in Alice Springs earlier in the day.

- REUTERS