Falconio Suspect in Rape Trial

The chief suspect in the murder of the British backpacker Peter Falconio in the Australian outback kidnapped a mother and daughter and planned to commit suicide to escape police, a court was told yesterday.

Bradley Murdoch is on trial in Adelaide for the rape and kidnap of a mother and her 12-year-old daughter in South Australia in August. He denies the charges.

The court heard how he handcuffed them with plastic cords similar to those used to tie up Joanne Lees, Falconio's girlfriend, at the time of the killing in July 2001.

The prosecutor, Liesl Chapman, said Mr Murdoch took the women hostage as "insurance" in case police tried to arrest him for the Falconio murder.

She said he had kidnapped the mother and daughter, who lived near Mr Murdoch in a remote house in rural South Australia, after learning that police had taken a DNA sample from his brother in Perth and planned to interview him.

The 33-year-old victim told the court: "He said he was going over to the west to kill a man and to shoot a couple of other bikies. Then he was going to shoot himself in the head because he couldn't take being on the run any more." She said he had laughed when she asked why he had raped her daughter.

Ms Chapman has alleged that Mr Murdoch was obsessed with the Falconio murder. "He believed for whatever reason the police were after him for this well-publicised murder."

A warrant has been issued for Mr Murdoch's arrest in the Northern Territory, where Falconio was murdered.