Danny Deacon, who murdered his partner Carlie Sinclair in 2013, loses his bid for appeal

THE Territory’s highest court has dealt murderer Danny Deacon a crippling legal blow, knocking back his bid for an appeal

Danny Deacon fronted a missing persons campaign in the days after he murdered his partner, Carlie Sinclair

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THE Territory’s highest court has dealt murderer Danny Deacon a crippling legal blow, knocking back his bid for an appeal.

Deacon, now 49, in 2013 murdered his partner, Carlie Sinclair and buried her in a tarp in a bush grave near Mulgara Rd, Berry Springs, where she lay undiscovered for 18 months.

Despite digging the grave three weeks earlier, Deacon claimed he was “provoked” into a “fit of rage” when he learned Ms Sinclair planned to leave him, and that he was guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter, not murder.

The Court of Criminal Appeal on Friday rejected Deacon’s argument that an elaborate “Mr Big” sting, which saw Deacon confess to undercover cops, was “oppressive”, unfair and the evidence should never have been shown to a jury.

Danny Deacon during an interview with Channel 9 Darwin. Picture: Nine News Darwin/NT Supreme Court

The operation, some new details of which can now be published, involved “hundreds of hours of subterfuge”, and concluded with Deacon confessing to the gang’s “boss”, at the Como Hotel in Perth.

The boss, known in police circles as “Mr Big” was an experienced undercover cop and the controller of the undercover operation.

“The meeting was the culmination of hundreds of hours of artifice, deceit and contrived criminal interactions,” Chief Justice Michael Grant, Justice Stephen Southwood and Justice Trevor Riley said in their reasons for decision.

Deacon, who suspected “Mr Big” might have been a cop, drew a map on a scrap of paper showing where Ms Sinclair’s body was, before flying to Darwin with the undercover cops to the bush block where he had buried Ms Sinclair.

Danny Deacon during his Supreme Court trial. Artwork: Stuart Thornton

In the minutes before he was arrested, Deacon, boasting to the undercover cops about what he had done, said: “If you plan a murder, you’re f*cked, you’re in there for a very long time … no one gets away with that sh*t …”

The court on Thursday found the sting “was not conducted in a manner which created a coercive environment or infringed the applicant’s rights and privileges …”.

“The fact that the operation involved deception or trickery was neither unlawful nor unusual in the context of police investigative and information gathering techniques.”

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The court also rejected a prosecution appeal of the 21 year and six month non-parole period Justice Peter Barr imposed on Deacon.

The prosecution claimed the non-parole period was “manifestly inadequate”.

Deacon will be eligible for parole when he is 66.

His final avenue of appeal is to the High Court of Australia.