Falconio accused in faces separate court date

The man accused of murdering British backpacker Peter Falconio will first be tried on unrelated charges of raping a mother and her daughter, an Australian court ruled today.

Bradley John Murdoch will go on trial in Adelaide on November 29 charged with the rape and abduction of a woman and her 12-year-old daughter from their rural home in South Australia in August.

Murdoch was an acquaintance of the mother, who lived with her daughter in a house close to his.

The 44-year-old mechanic and truck driver has also been charged with the murder of Mr Falconio, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, on an outback road in the Northern Territory in July last year.

The two offences occurred in different states – and therefore judicial jurisdictions – and Murdoch faces prosecution in each state for the crime committed there.

South Australian police arrested Murdoch in August for the rapes and then realised he fitted the description of the man wanted for Mr Falconio’s murder.

The South Australian State Magistrates Court said today that Murdoch will first face trial in South Australia and then immediately be transferred to the Northern Territory for the murder hearing.

If found guilty on both sets of charges he is expected to serve both sentences in the Northern Territory.

He faces life sentences on both charges.