Bradley John Murdoch is innocent says Peter Falconio trial witness

FIFTEEN years after Peter Falconio’s murder, a witness in the trial of Bradley John Murdoch has revealed in detail why he believes the bush mechanic is innocent

Greg Dick, manager of the Aileron Roadhouse on the Stuart Highway ... ‘Murdoch didn’t do it’. Picture: Brad Hunter

FIFTEEN years after Peter Falconio’s murder, a witness in the trial of Bradley John Murdoch has revealed in detail why he believes the bush mechanic is innocent.

Greg Dick told the NT News this week that Mr Falconio and Joanne Lees pulled into his roadhouse at Aileron, about 100km north of Alice Springs, about 4pm on July 14, 2001, the day the British backpacker was murdered.

Mr Dick has revealed his suspicions just weeks after the murder of a French Tourist just 30km south of the Aileron Roadhouse which has brought back haunting memories for the locals.

He said he saw Lees innocently speak to another man at the roadhouse, who he believes was Falconio’s killer.

Bradley John Murdoch arrives under police escort at Darwin Airport to face murder charges of British backpacker Peter Falconio in 2001. Picture: Patrina Malone

“I saw her speak to somebody outside my place. I didn’t take any notice of them until well and truly after it,” he said.

“She jumped up and ran out and spoke to him, why I don’t know, I often assumed they were travelling together.

“I’ve often thought about that one.

“He looked like a person who could live in the bush. Live off the land. A very clean, neat fella.”

Mr Dick said he still had vivid memories of the strange bushman.

He said the man complained about the cost of a bottle of Coke, and ordered a meat pie for his dog.

But he said it was definitely not Bradley John Murdoch.

“Nah. No way in the world mate. No, he was a young clipper, could have lived in the bush. He was going to a good place where he could have disposed of the body. I’ve got a lot on my mind of it, but there you go.”

Mr Dick was a witness at Bradley John Murdoch’s murder trial 11 years ago.

Mr Dick swears he saw the couple’s orange Kombi van at Aileron, 100km south of Ti Tree, about 4pm on the day.

“I still reckon they’ve jailed the wrong man,” he said.

“On that day I’ve had some incidents I can look back on, who she spoke to at my place and things like that. They’re all in history but it will come out one day.”

Falconio was murdered at Barrow Creek, about 150km north of Aileron roadhouse.

British tourist Peter Falconio, who went missing near Barrow Creek in 2001, with girlfriend Joanne Lees

The NT Supreme Court found Murdoch shot the British backpacker on the side of the road after flagging down the Orange Kombi van and offering to help with engine troubles.

The court found Lees was tied up and threatened with a gun but managed to escape while Murdoch was trying to dispose of the body.

Lees managed to escape into the bushes where she hid for five hours before flagging down a passing truck driver.

A DNA sample discovered on Lees’ T-shirt was found to be 150 quadrillion times more likely to be Murdoch’s than anyone else’s.

He was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in prison for Falconio’s murder. New laws introduced by the NT Government mean he won’t be released, unless he tells police where Falconio’s body is. But there are some, including Mr Dick, who say the convicted killer has no idea where the body is.

“If Murdoch did it I reckon he’d be man enough to say ‘the body’s in such and such’ that’s how I’d treat him,” he said.

“He doesn’t seem to be a chicken hearted one of that type of thing.

“I’m sure he’d say ‘I buried it here or put it there’, that’s why he can’t tell you.”

Mr Dick has his own theory on where the body is buried.

“I reckon it’s up around Policeman’s Waterhole up in those ranges,” he said.

“There’s that many mineshafts and so on and the fella I was talking to that afternoon here that’s where he was going to camp. I don’t know, one day in 100 years we’ll probably find it but I don’t know. I won’t be around then.”

Lees has been seen recently in Central Australia filming a documentary. She wants a monument erected at Ti Tree where she and Falconio enjoyed their last sunset.

But Mr Dick said the region’s darkest day was best left in the history books.

“We don’t need those things along our road to frighten tourists off,” he said.