Convicted murderer Bradley John Murdoch to be moved into Darwin’s new prison

CONVICTED murderer Bradley John Murdoch will be moved into Darwin’s new prison.

14/11/2003 LIBRARY: 15/11/2003: Bradley John Murdoch arrives under police escort at Darwin Airport to face murder charges of British backpacker Peter Falconio. Picture: PATRINA MALONE

CONVICTED murderer Bradley John Murdoch will move into Darwin’s new prison.

Murdoch is serving a life sentence for the July 2001 Stuart Highway murder of English backpacker Peter Falconio.

Department of Correctional Services media manager David Harris said he could not confirm the date Murdoch, who is currently doing time at Berrimah, would move to the prison due to safety reasons.

The new $495 million prison at Holtze, between Darwin and Palmerston, was officially opened yesterday.

READ: ATTORNEY GENERAL PLEADS WITH MURDOCH TO REVEAL BODY LOCATION

Despite both arriving late to the ceremony, Correctional Services Minister John Elferink and Infrastructure Minister Peter Styles made it in time to spout the prison’s reduce-reoffenders ethos to the crowd of 100 or so, including mayors from Litchfield and Palmerston Allan McKay and Ian Abbott.

According to the Department of Correctional Services, 54 per cent of inmates reoffend.

The 1048-bed Darwin Correctional Precinct is focused on educating and training prisoners to properly prepare them to be part of society on release.

“The Territory Government’s Working Prisons Policy will focus on employment as a means to break the vicious cycle of repeat offending and reduce the Territory’s high recidivism rate,” Mr Elferink said.

All 820 inmates at the Darwin Correctional Centre at Berrimah will be carted to the new prison before the end of the month.