Danny Deacon found guilty of murdering partner Carlie Sinclair

DANNY Deacon has been found guilty of the murder of his partner Carlie Sinclair

Killer Danny Deacon during a television interview which was played to the trial. Picture: Nine News Darwin/NT Supreme Court

DANNY Deacon has been found guilty of the murder of his partner Carlie Sinclair.

The jury of 12 — eight women and four men — delivered its verdict in the Supreme Court having been instructed to deliberate whether Deacon was guilty of murder, or the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The four-week trial saw just one morning of defence evidence in which Deacon himself took to the stand and admitted to killing Ms Sinclair.

The defence case rested on the proposition that Deacon killed Ms Sinclair in a momentary, provoked fit of rage.

Under Territory law a killer who was found to have been provoked in such a way cannot be found guilty of murder.

Instead, the provocation reduces the murder charge to manslaughter.

Deacon, 46, admitted to digging Ms Sinclair’s grave in scrub on private land at 20 Mulgara Rd Berry Springs.

Ms Sinclair’s mother, Marlene Sinclair, has been in court for the duration of Deacon’s trial, which saw dozens of witnesses, including Mrs Sinclair herself, police, and Ms Sinclair’s close friends.

The trial — easily the most high-profile in recent Territory history — also heard from undercover police, whose precise involvement in Deacon’s investigation may never be aired publicly, and is the subject of extensive suppression orders.

Crown Prosecutor Mary Chalmers has said, however, that without the undercover police, Deacon may never have been caught.

“He thought he got away with murder, and for 18 months, he did,” Ms Chalmers said in her closing address to the jury last week.