Falconio set-up claims 'offensive'

SYDNEY - The prosecution has dismissed defence claims of corruption and a police set-up in the Outback murder of Peter Falconio as offensive nonsense.

The rebuttal came as one of the country's most perplexing and intriguing criminal trials draws to a close after eight weeks of evidence from more than 80 witnesses in the Northern Territory Court in Darwin.

Bradley Murdoch, 47, is accused of murdering Falconio, 28, and assaulting his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, after flagging down their VW Kombi north of Alice Springs four years ago. He denies the charges.

Prosecutors say Murdoch, of Broome, Western Australia, disposed of Falconio's body somewhere in the desert but failed in his bid to abduct Lees, now 32, who escaped and cowered in the darkness for five hours before flagging down a passing road train.

On Monday, Murdoch's lawyers suggested Falconio may have staged his own disappearance and that Australian police could have framed Murdoch by planting evidence.

The allegations were dismissed by chief prosecutor Rex Wild, who said there was not a shred of evidence to suggest corruption.

"You might have found it offensive. There's no evidence of it so you can disregard it," he told the jury.

Falconio's parents wiped away tears as Wild summed up his case.

The Yorkshire couple was six months into a round-the-world backpacking trip before Falconio disappeared on July 14, 2001.

"Miss Lees was handcuffed, thrown out of the vehicle, hit the ground, and punched and manhandled before she escaped," Wild said. "We can only guess what would have happened if she had not escaped. I suggest she might not have walked free."

He said it was not surprising Falconio's body had never been found, despite the biggest manhunt in Australian history.

He told the jury that it was not difficult to hide a body in remote central Australia.

Murdoch's lawyers claim there are crucial flaws in Lees' account and that details of the alleged ambush "don't quite add up".

They have suggested Falconio may have wanted to vanish.

"People disappear themselves for reasons perhaps best known to them. Sometimes they turn up later, sometimes they don't," defence lawyer Grant Algie said.

Lees told the court at the start of the trial two months ago that while sitting in the front of the Kombi she heard a loud bang, like a gunshot, and never saw her boyfriend again. She said Murdoch then threatened her with a silver revolver.

The court had heard DNA matching Murdoch's profile was found on the back of Lees' T-shirt, homemade handcuffs used to bind her wrists and the Kombi's gear stick.

The defence suggested police may have planted DNA and that Murdoch's blood could have rubbed onto Lees' before the ambush, when they were allegedly in the same Alice Springs restaurant.

"The police really thought Brad Murdoch did it," Algie said. "Are police prepared, do you think, to bend the rules, to fabricate a little bit, to lie a little bit?"

He urged the jury to be wary of expert evidence, reminding them of the bungled Lindy Chamberlain dingo murder case of the 1980s at Uluru, or Ayers Rock.