Australia Australia - Peter Falconio, 28, Barrow Creek, NT, 14 Jul 2001

[Cappuccino]

Cappucino, no disrespect meant at all - but Lees' account has been called into question by MSM often, and from the get-go. Parts of her account are not supported, or are even directly contradicted, by the forensic evidence. That's just a fact, no matter which way you look at it.

I cannot speak for WS itself, but in my opinion this alone is just cause to question her honesty and motives for not telling the truth about what happened. It'd be a shame if we couldn't discuss a case where the 'victim' may not -- according to hard evidence -- indeed be a victim.

But I'll roll with whatever the rule is on this.

I'm personally not into attacking other people for holding different opinions, but I don't mind an atmosphere of polite debate. I hope my disagreeing with your POV wasn't part of the animosity you've percieved here, none was at all intended.

This is not polite debate. This is frankly a bit disgusting, from whichever point of view you have. Is it really acceptable to make "joke" posts about Joanne Lees touching Murdochs' balls? Seriously?

 

[glitters]

A former high profile criminal lawyer says Bradley John Murdoch, convicted of the murder of Peter Falconio in 2005, was framed and deserves a retrial. Paul Murray spoke to Andrew Fraser about recent developments.

http://www.6pr.com.au/blogs/6pr-perth-blog/murdoch-deserves-retrial/20110801-1i7e8.html

 

[glitters]

CCTV man 'different build' to Falconio accused

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-370265/CCTV-man-different-build-Falconio-accused.html

 

[glitters]

In her original statement she said she had been pushed through, between the seats, but she had since changed her mind about this, the court heard.

Asked why, she said: "The police told me that there is no such vehicle that has front-to-rear access and that has put doubt in my mind, and I looked at other possibilities.

"All I know is that I got from the front to the back quite easily, that I did not walk around the vehicle.

"Consequently it was after that interview that I began to doubt myself."

Mr Algie asked if she had tried to grab and squeeze her attacker's testicles while struggling on the ground.

"That's what I was aiming for but I just reached his inner leg. It had no effect," she replied.

But Mr Algie read out an extract from her statement to police in which she said: "I grabbed hold of his nuts and I squeezed them. He didn't do anything. It didn't seem to have any effect."

Mr Algie said: "You wouldn't have been able to reach, would you?"

She replied: "Yes - especially if the man was bending over, and at my legs. I'm actually quite flexible."

Earlier today, Ms Lees told the court she had seen a picture of her attacker on a news website while she was working in Sicily in October 2002.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/19/australia.jamessturcke

 

[glitters]

How Joanne Lees’ story has changed over five years
By Roger Maynard, who covered the Falconio case for the London Times, and wrote a book on the case, "Where's Peter?", published by Harper Collins | Oct 04, 2006 12:00AM | EMAIL | PRINT

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While few will fail to be impressed by the way Joanne Lees survived her ordeal in the middle of the Australian outback, her account of the attack does not address some of the key claims she made in the early days of the investigation.

More specifically, she glosses over one of the crucial episodes — how she got from the cab of the gunman’s utility to the rear tray.

“He grabbed me and the next thing I knew I was in the back of his ute (utility truck),” she says in her book, which provided a perfect opportunity to clear up any confusion.

From the outset, eyebrows had been raised about the standard of the police investigation and in particular the thoroughness of the search in the undergrowth at Barrow Creek where Joanne had hidden for several hours.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2006/10/04/how-joanne-lees-story-has-changed-over-five-years/

 

[glitters]

The manager of the Aileron Roadhouse, north of Alice Springs, told the court that a couple driving an orange Kombi van stopped at the service station

AUSTRALIA: NT: A Darwin court has heard that British backpackers Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees stopped at a Central Australian service station a few hours before he went missing.

The evidence presented in the Northern Territory Supreme Court went against statements made earlier by Ms Lees.

The manager of the Aileron Roadhouse, north of Alice Springs, told the court that a couple driving an orange Kombi van stopped at the service station.

He described the woman as pretty and tanned with an English accent, while her boyfriend had an Italian accent.

He said he was 90 per cent certain it was Mr Falconio and Ms Lees.

http://archive.indymedia.org.nz/article/70260/witnesses-contradict-lees-over-roadhouse

 

[Karo]

It most certainly is not quite clear cut how Murdoch was convicted and I believe Ms Lees was not totally truthful in her story but I am not sure why. Hepi is suspect in this as well I think.

 

[Cappuccino]

I think Joanne Lees was the victim of an awful crime.

<modsnip> The supposed advocates of Murdoch aren't doing a very good job.

<modsnip>

 

[Karo]

There is just nothing in Lee's story that convinces me of her innocence of any knowledge at all.

 

[glitters]

It most certainly is not quite clear cut how Murdoch was convicted and I believe Ms Lees was not totally truthful in her story but I am not sure why. Hepi is suspect in this as well I think.

I agree with you - Hepi certainly is a suspect in this case,right down to being given a 'get out of jail free' card which he played when he was arrested for drug carrying - he told one of the police officers he would obtain cigarette butts and other items which belonged to Bradley Murdoch and as a result he was not convicted of carting around kilos of drugs and he also retained all his possessions,which are always confiscated as being obtained by crime methods. Lees changed her story so much,one would assume her descriptions in the beginning were the clearest,but none of them described the man serving such a long jail term for a crime without a body.

 

[Karo]

I am not asking her to do anything. It is my opinion she was dishonest because her story has too many holes in it and I believe she did not tell everything she knew.

 

[glitters]

Nick Riley.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/28/1085641715303.html

More inconsistencies :
Falconio hearing told of inconsistencies in Lees' testimony
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1120825.htm

 

[Ausgirl]

More MSM accounts of Lees' flubbing her story:

Falconio hearing told of inconsistencies in Lees' testimony
PM - Tuesday, 1 June , 2004 18:44:58
Reporter: Anne Barker
MARK COLVIN: A police officer who helped investigate the disappearance of the British backpacker Peter Falconio nearly three years ago has listed a string of inconsistencies in the story given by Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Several police gave evidence today at the committal hearing of 45-year-old Bradley John Murdoch, who's charged with Falconio's murder, and the assault and deprivation of liberty of Ms Lees.

A superintendent has described more than a dozen areas where Joanne Lees' story didn't seem to add up.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1120825.htm

Even the police had a hard time believing her. But it should be said all these many inconsistencies were eventually addressed and explained away by Lees - after several years thinking-time, and a lucrative book deal...

To be fair, a few pieces of evidence that did corroborate a couple of parts of her story were found days or weeks after the event, bringing a spotlight of criticism onto the police over evidence gathering practises.

But even so, there's still many parts that simply don't add up - and it's not unfair to wonder, I think, why that is..

 

[glitters]

Article by Richard Shears:

http://richardshears.com/2011/07/13/peter-falconio-10-years-on-where-is-his-body/

 

[bessie]

The thread is open again, but if the bickering starts again, TO's will be issued with no questions asked. Use the ignore feature, and learn to agree to disagree.

 

[fruity]

On 14th July 2001, Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees, two English tourists, were allegedly attacked near Barrow Creek in the Northern Territory, Australia, by a gunman who flagged them down whilst they were driving their Kombi van North on the Stuart Highway. Peter Falconio was allegedly shot in the head by Bradley John Murdoch, a known drug runner. Joanne Lees escaped from Murdoch by hiding in the bushes until he left. She then flagged down a road train for assistance. However, she was the only witness to the alleged attack, and within days was emailing another man with whom she had had an affair. She was reluctant to assist police saying that she wanted to be left alone to get on with her life.
Murdoch was imprisoned for the alleged crime,

It is not 'alleged'. It is not a cold case. Murdoch was found guilty in a court of law.

Falconio's body has never been found.

Neither was Susan Powell's or Danielle Jones'. It's not unusual.
Murder conviction without a body - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Murdoch was found guilty on the basis of one small speck of his blood found on Lees T shirt.

Incorrect. His DNA was also in the layers of the tape that he used to bind her wrists.

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1484337.htm

If Brad Murdoch is hoping that proposed reviews of DNA laws might help him, he'd better think again. While there are questions about the reliability of low-copy DNA evidence, such as those of Murdoch's that were found on the gearstick and steering wheel of the Kombi, and on the inside of the handmade cuffs, there is no question about the spot of blood found on the back of Lees's T-shirt.

Australian laboratories currently look to match only 10 so-called "marker sites" to any DNA sample. There is a push afoot to adopt European standards so that any sample must match 16 DNA marker sites. That won't help Murdoch. The blood spot on Lees's shirt matched Murdoch at 16 sites.

The evidence was so damning Murdoch's lawyers did not even raise the issue during his appeal. But the judges did when dismissing the appeal. They said of the blood match it was "150 quadrillion times more likely that the DNA on the T-shirt came from the appellant [Murdoch] than from any other person in the population selected at random".

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/on...lconio-is-buried/story-e6frf7jo-1225863856999

His DNA was also on the steering wheel and gearstick of the kombi.

Dr Jonathan Whitaker is a vital witness for the prosecution, because it was his tests in Britain that showed an exact match between Bradley Murdoch and the DNA found inside the cable-ties used to handcuff Joanne Lees.

He told the court that Northern territory police asked him to test an inner loop of the handcuffs, along with swabs from the gear stick and steering wheel of the orange Kombi van that Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio were driving near Barrow Creek when the alleged attack occurred.

Dr Whitaker said he'd used a highly sensitive method of DNA testing, called low copy number, where a DNA profile can be found and identified from just a few cells.

http://falconio.weebly.com/dna.html

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1497297.htm

During a robust exchange, he asked if Dr Whitaker could have mistaken one element of DNA for another, and wrongly identified Bradley Murdoch.

Dr Whitaker rejected the assertion.

"This is why I'm the expert," he said.

"I can assure you that the interpretation is correct."

At that moment, Bradley Murdoch lent forward in the dock towards his girlfriend Jan Pittman, who was sitting in the public gallery, and clearly mouthed to her the words, "I'm the expert," while gesturing as if to masturbate.

Grant Algie continued his line of questioning, again challenging Dr Whitaker's results.

"I repeat," Dr Whitaker said, "the results are accurate, they're reliable, they're duplicated. They've been checked, they've been peer reviewed. They satisfy the research, the validation."

Now, while I agree that I don't think we know the full story and that some things are suspicious, I think it's pretty obvious that Bradley Murdoch is part of the story no matter what the truth is.

 

[my name is josephine]

Now, while I agree that I don't think we know the full story and that some things are suspicious, I think it's pretty obvious that Bradley Murdoch is part of the story no matter what the truth is.

I'd agree that this is a possibility - but this doesn't mean he murdered Falconio at Barrow Creek. I don't think Falconio WAS murdered at Barrow Creek by ANYBODY - unless there were two people present to lift the body into the vehicle to take it away.

 

[dizzigirl1]

This is a long article from the Sydney Morning Herald in 2005 but definitely worth a read.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/paranoid-armed-and-deadly/2005/12/14/1134500916819.html

 

[Ausgirl]

Evidence says there -were- two people there when Falconio went missing. Murdoch - and Lees.

If the DNA puts Murdoch both in the kombi and in close contact with Lees, and Lees' story regarding Murdoch's attack on her is as questionable as the evidence says it is -- then what might this suggest about what really went on?

Just suppose for a moment that Lees -was- lying about the attack. Why on earth (given that Murdoch WAS there, says the evidence, and handled both the kombi gear stick and the tape) would anyone fake being abducted, and then turn on the co-conspirator and finger him for murder and attempted rape? I'm sure there's a variety of scenarios that could explain it. But none really make sense to me, at the moment.

However, Lees' story makes little sense, when piled against the evidence. No dog hair on her, for instance. I defy anyone to get into a space frequently inhabited by a medium to large dog, roll around in it and then get up with not a single trace of dog hair to be found. No footprints anywhere matching Murdoch -or- his dog, which is problematic. Et cetera. ..

I hate to think this case will remain one of those maddening mysteries that nobody will ever see an answer to, because the truth has been deliberately very well buried. But I have no doubt that the truth -was- buried.

 

[Continuum]

I'd agree that this is a possibility - but this doesn't mean he murdered Falconio at Barrow Creek. I don't think Falconio WAS murdered at Barrow Creek by ANYBODY - unless there were two people present to lift the body into the vehicle to take it away.

Chris Malouf was close ...and was in contact all the way from Uluru...:shush: