A THUGGISH interstate drug runner was yesterday found guilty of murdering Peter Falconio, the British backpacker who vanished on a highway in the Australian outback four years ago.

Bradley John Murdoch, 47, was also convicted of abducting and assaulting Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees, in the attack which occurred on the Stuart Highway about 200 miles north of Alice Springs, on July 14 2001.

Yesterday Miss Lees, who has endured innuendo since the murder to which she was the only witness, urged Murdoch to reveal the location of Falconio's body.

A mechanic from the Western Australian tourist town of Broome, Murdoch had flagged down the couple’s camper van which was touring the desert highway.

He then shot Falconio, threatened Lees with his rifle and tied her hands behind her back. During the struggle Murdoch inadvertently left DNA on Lees's T-shirt.

She managed to escape, and scramble to a sparse hideaway, before being rescued by a passing truck driver.

After an eight-week trial at the Northern Territory Supreme Court in tropical Darwin, the jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict on Murdoch. Chief Justice, Brian Martin, sentenced Murdoch to life imprisonment.

Outside the court Miss Lees, 32, a care worker from the English seaside town of Brighton, stood beside Falconio's parents and two brothers. She appealed to Murdoch to reveal where he had dumped her former boyfriend's body.

But this is considered unlikely as Murdoch's lawyer told the court he had received instructions to appeal.

Officers who arrested Murdoch found weapons inside his van, including a high-powered rifle, and night vision goggles. The Northern Territory police also discovered a jockey whip, five pairs of disposable gloves, and two long-handled shovels.