Joanne Lees

Joanne Lees

Joanne Rachael Lees, (born September 25 1973[1] in Huddersfield, England), is a British woman who is most notable for being the girlfriend of Peter Falconio at the time of his disappearance on a remote stretch of highway near Barrow Creek in outback Northern Territory, Australia on July 14 2001. Lees was the chief crown witness in the subsequent murder trial of Bradley John Murdoch conducted in Darwin.

Lees met Falconio in a nightclub in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England in 1996, and began living with him the following year in Brighton, England, where Falconio was studying at university. In the year 2000, the couple embarked on a world tour to Thailand, Singapore, and Australia.

The Disappearance of Peter Falconio

Lees told investigators that while travelling at night along the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek (between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek) in the Northern Territory on 14 July 2001, a man had asked them to stop, claiming engine troubles, and he suddenly took both of them and that she heard a shot fired. The man then tied her up and covered her head, but she escaped, hiding for 5 hours in the bush. The aboriginal trackers could find no evidence of a mans foot prints or a dogs foot prints, only Lees's. The blood found at the scene was described by the Aboriginal trackers as very old and not recent.

Falconio's body was never found, but Lees went to great lengths to (inaccurately) describe her alleged attacker, his vehicle, and his dog. These descriptions were used to conduct an extensive Australia-wide manhunt in which over 200 people were interviewed. An extensive search by Australian federal police was unable to uncover any resident of the Northern Territory who precisely fit the description given by Joanne Lees, nor any vehicle that was registered in the Northern Territory that fit her description. However, video footage from a roadstation surveillance camera showed what appeared to be a man who might fit the description given by Lees. Due to their similar appearances to that which Lees gave, some of the interviewees were arrested and briefly held in custody, but none were charged because they had not been in Barrow Creek at the time of the alleged offence.

The Prime Suspect

Bradley John Murdoch was arrested primarily because he was found to have left Alice Springs at a time and in a direction that may have led to him being at or about Barrow Creek at the time of the alleged offence. Expert testimony presented at the trial indicated that Bradley John Murdoch was the man captured in the CCTV footage at the service station. Furthermore, the identikit drawings of the attacker and his vehicle bore a slight resemblance to Murdoch and his vehicle. Joanne Lees claimed she identified Murdoch, first via a UK website in late 2002 where he was declared a suspect in the case, then from police photographs shown to Lees in November 2002 by NT Police, and fiinally face-to-face during the trial on October 18, 2005. This, combined with the DNA match on Joanne Lees' t-shirt, formed the basis for Murdoch being charged with the offence. The NT Police placed great emphasis on the specific LC (Low Copy Number) DNA testing procedure and this DNA result greatly assisted in the conviction of Murdoch. In December of 2007 the Northern Ireland police have announced the suspension of the use of the same specific DNA technique in the light of a very, very damning criticism by a trial judge who commented that there would be "profound implications for all those convicted utilising the same DNA testing procedure". The Crown Prosecution Service also announced it was reviewing upcoming cases in which the so-called low copy number DNA was part of the prosecution, Murdoch's conviction needs to be reviewed.

Initial public perception in some of the Australian media implied that Lees was in some way responsible for Falconio's murder, and as a result, she received a lot of hostility during her time in Australia following the disappearance}. Lees has reportedly attempted to sue a number of Australian citizens in relation to their libellous claims about her in the Australian media, but withdrew all applications.

The Investigation Continues

As the investigations went on, Lees admitted to use of ecstasy and marijuana, and to having sex with another man, Nick Riley, in Sydney during their trip through Australia. During the trial, Joanne Lees' credibility was attacked by the defence, which claimed to find inconsistencies in her story. These matters did not relate to the offence under investigation, and were perceived as essentially irrelevant, although voyeuristically interesting to the public.

On the 4th of January 2008 police in Western Australia advised that a woman was violently assaulted and raped at knife-point on an isolated highway yesterday. Detectives said a 46-year-old woman stopped near the Overlander Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway after hitting two birds. She was then approached by a man driving a white Toyota LandCruiser (the same description of the vehicle John Bradley Murdoch was alleged to have used during the attack on Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees) . After a brief conversation, the man attacked her from behind with a knife and forced her to the ground, where he raped her. Police said the victim suffered significant injuries. The aggressive attack took place on a stretch of highway 200km south of Carnavon between 5.30pm and 7pm. After the assault, the women drove herself to the Carnavon police station. Her attacker is described as a white male in his 40s with short, light-brown hair. Murdoch could not have committed the offence as he is in jail.

Strategy of the Defence

Murdoch's defence argued during the trial that the minute DNA match on Joanne Lees' T-shirt could be due to accidental blood transfer in an Alice Springs Red Rooster restaurant prior to the alleged offence or simply planted by persons unknown, further samples were found to be to contaminated and were not presented as evidence . Murdoch had given evidence that he had stopped at that restaurant to buy chicken for himself and his dog, "chicken roll, box of nuggets for Jack...full chicken for the trip". During the committal hearing, Lees at one stage mentioned that she and Falconio had stopped at Red Rooster.

Media Interviews

Lees has also appeared on British media since the event, talking not only about her boyfriend's disappearance and the man who killed him, but also about the way that she was treated in the Australian press, and by Australian citizens.

Lees also agreed to an interview with Martin Bashir, which was later televised in Australia, for which she was paid £50,000. She later testified in court she agreed to this interview to raise awareness of the case in Australia, as she felt the public profile of the case had diminished.

A lengthy interview with Lees was aired on Andrew Denton's show, Enough Rope on Monday 9 October 2006.

On October 9, 2006, Lees was interviewed on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 by John Humphrys. He proceeded to attack Lees for cashing in on the tragedy.

Writing Her Book

Lees wrote No Turning Back, a book about her life, for which she reportedly received an advance of GBP 250,000. She went to the UK for the launch of the book in October 2006 and a serialisation appeared in The Times newspaper on October 2nd and 3rd [2]. During the time she spent living in Sydney and Darwin, she said she found the local people very welcoming.

On 10 October 2006, Lees was interviewed by BBC News 24.

Joanne Lees: Murder In The Outback telemovie

Main article: Joanne Lees - Murder in the Outback

Joanne Lees: Murder In The Outback or otherwise known as Murder In The Outback was a 2007 English/Australian telemovie following the ordeal of Joanne Lees before and after Falconio's death.

It covers the time period from the night the murder happened up to the sentencing of the murderer.

Actual radio news reports by Australian reporter Tim Stackpool [3], broadcast in the UK during the real trial, are used extensively as part of the soundtrack to this film. Stackpool's reports were widely considered to be impartial, if perhaps sympathetic to Joanne Lees, often referring to the victims of the crime in his reports by their first names only.

External links

• "DNA 'ties' Murdoch to couple's van", The Age, October 18, 2005
• New Criminologist: Bradley Murdoch gets life in prison for the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio in Australia
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 80 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 79 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 78 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 77 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 76 (15 December 2005)
• The Queen v Murdoch 2005 NTSC 75 (15 December 2005)
• Joanne Lees interviewed by Ginny Dougary 2006
• Did Bradley Murdoch murder Peter Falconio? December 2007
• Robin Bowles Author of Dead Centre
• How Joanne Lees got her bound hands from behind her to the front of her