Judge stops police testing DNA in Falconio hunt

Police investigating the disappearance of the missing British tourist Peter Falconio in a remote part of Australia were yesterday refused permission to analyse DNA from a key suspect.

A sample of DNA has already been taken from Bradley John Murdoch and detectives wanted to compare it to a bloodstain found on the clothing of Joanne Lees, Mr Falconio's girlfriend.

Mr Murdoch, a 44-year-old mechanic from Broome, Western Australia, appeared in Adelaide last week to face rape and kidnap charges unrelated to the Falconio case. He had been arrested over double rape allegations in Port Augusta, 800 miles from where Mr Falconio disappeared.

South Australian police believed he resembled the description of the man wanted in the Falconio case. Detectives described Mr Murdoch as a "person of interest to us".

But the Australian Supreme Court ruled that tests could not go ahead until an appeal from Mr Murdoch's lawyers was heard. No date for the hearing has been set. The decision overruled a magistrates' court which ruled last week that police could analyse the DNA.

Mr Falconio, 28, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, is believed to have been shot by a gunman who tried to abduct Miss Lees, also from Huddersfield, on the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs. His blood was found there, but his body is still missing.