Falconio suspect wins right to DNA appeal
A double rape suspect in Australia today won the right to appeal against his DNA being analysed in attempt to link him to the apparent murder of a British backpacker.
Bradley John Murdoch is “a person of interest” in the disappearance and suspected murder last year of Peter Falconio from Huddersfield.
The 44-year-old appeared in court in Adelaide on Friday on unrelated rape and abduction charges.
He was arrested in Port Augusta, 185 miles north of Adelaide, almost two weeks ago for allegedly raping two women.
South Australian police believed he fitted the description of the man wanted in Mr Falconio’s case.
Mr Falconio was abducted from a remote road in the Outback, more than 1,000 miles away in Northern Territory province.
Police found a pool of his blood at the scene and fear he is dead, but a massive manhunt has failed to find his body or his attacker.
Last Friday, Northern Territory police applied for a sample of Murdoch’s DNA to be tested against one taken from a blood stain found on the clothes of Mr Falconio’s girlfriend, Joanne Lees.
Ms Lees was tied up by her boyfriend’s abductor when the two were ambushed, but later managed to escape and raise the alarm.
DNA samples have already been taken from Murdoch, a mechanic from the town of Broome in Western Australia state.
But today, the Australian Supreme Court ordered that the tests cold not be carried out until the appeal from Murdoch’s lawyers is heard.
