The murderer of Huddersfield backpacker Peter Falconio has dropped his appeal.

Lawyers representing murderer Bradley John Murdoch have formally withdrawn an application for the appeal, which was put forward in December last year.

Murdoch was convicted of murdering Mr Falconio in the Northern Territory in 2001.

Mr Falconio is believed to have been killed near Barrow Creek, when he was 28.

He had been travelling with girlfriend Joanne Lees, from Almondbury, in a Kombi van on the Stuart Highway near Alice Springs, about 1,600 kilometres south of Darwin.

Murdoch's 2005 trial was told that he had stopped the van at night and killed Mr Falconio, later disposing of his body.

bradley murdoch
bradley murdoch

Ms Lees escaped by eluding him in scrubland and later running on to the road where she was seen and rescued by a truck driver.

He was also found guilty of the assault and deprivation of liberty of Miss Lees.

The body of Mr Falconio has never been found.

The supposed basis of the now withdrawn appeal was based on an assertion of misconduct by the Crown prosecutor at his original trial.

"This is an allegation that the crown prosecutor at the original trial, Rex Wild QC, improperly groomed the star crown witness Joanne Lees in how to give her evidence,'' Murdoch's barrister Peter Faris QC said previously in a statement.

"This allegation brings into question the entirety of Lees' evidence.'' 

Murdoch is currently serving a life sentence at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre.

He has been set a minimum non-parole period of 28 years.

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