A JUDGE today granted the killer of Huddersfield backpacker Peter Falconio leave to appeal against his sentence.
Bradley John Murdoch, 47, was jailed for life last year for the murder in the Australian Outback in July, 2001.
A court ordered that he serve at least 28 years before being allowed to apply for parole.
Murdoch, a drifter and self-confessed drug runner, was also sentenced to two years for assaulting Mr Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees, and four years for depriving her of her liberty.
Today a judge in the Northern Territory capital, Darwin, granted Murdoch leave to appeal against his non-parole period. But he rejected a claim that the sentences relating to Ms Lees were extreme.
Mr Falconio, then 28, from Hepworth, and Ms Lees were on a `trip of a lifetime' when they were attacked at gunpoint on a remote highway 200 miles north of Alice Springs.
Murdoch shot Mr Falconio in the head before abducting and assaulting Miss Lees at gunpoint.
Ms Lees, now 32 and living in Brighton, faced constant smears after her boyfriend disappeared.
She said last month she was still distressed that Murdoch would not tell her where the body is.
She is writing a book to "correct inaccuracies and misconceptions".
