Outback murder hearing delayed by legal submissions

Legal argument today prevented British backpacker Joanne Lees from continuing her evidence in a committal hearing for the man accused of her boyfriend’s murder on a lonely Australian Outback road.

Lees yesterday recounted in Darwin Magistrates Court the terrifying night of July 14, 2001 when she last saw her boyfriend of six years, Peter Falconio, of Huddersfield.

She had been due to return to the stand today, arriving at the court under heavy guard.

However, lawyers instead spent the day arguing about whether some disputed evidence should be banned from publication in the media in order to ensure that the accused man Bradley Murdoch received a fair trial, if the case proceeded to trial.

Magistrate Alasdair McGregor upheld suppressions he had ordered on some sections of the prosecution’s graphic opening submission.

“The Australian common law and the National Territory common law seems to be all in one – that a person accused should have a fair trial,” McGregor said.

“I … uphold the validity of my orders.”

It was unclear whether Lees, of Brighton, would return to the witness box when court resumes tomorrow morning.

Murdoch, 45, is charged with the murder of 28-year-old Mr Falconio beside an Outback highway near Barrow Creek.

Murdoch, who was not required to enter a plea, is also accused of the unlawful assault and deprivation of liberty of Lees.

Lees yesterday told the court she had not seen Falconio since the couple pulled over to talk to a stranger on an isolated section of the outback Stuart Highway three years ago.

Falconio went to the back of the couple’s orange Kombi van with the man, and she heard a loud bang, “like the sound of a gunshot“.

Ms Lees told the court she was then bound and punched in the face, before she was able to escape and hide under a bush in the darkness for several hours.