Falconio murder: Police arrest man cleared of rape

A 45-year-old Australian lorry driver was arrested today in connection with the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio, shortly after being cleared of rape and abduction charges unrelated to Falconio’s disappearance.

Police were waiting outside the South Australian District Court in Adelaide to arrest the man, who had just been cleared of raping a woman and her daughter in South Australia state.

The jury returned a majority verdict of not guilty for two counts of rape, two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of indecent assault and one count of common assault.

The man was escorted by police out of the court building and taken to a nearby police station.

He is scheduled to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates’ Court tomorrow morning in connection with the murder of Falconio, from Yorkshire, who has been missing since a gunman attacked him and his girlfriend on July 14, 2001 on a remote desert highway in central Australia.

Authorities in the Northern Territory province, where the attack occurred, will ask the court to extradite the man to the provincial capital Darwin, a court spokesman said.

Police in the Northern Territory province who investigated Falconio’s disappearance did not immediately comment.

No trace has been found of Falconio since he and his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, were attacked.

Lees escaped to alert police. Her clothes provided the DNA evidence that led to the man’s eventual arrest after one of Australia’s biggest-ever manhunts.