A MAN charged with murdering missing Huddersfield backpacker Peter Falconio will appear in court in May.

Bradley Murdoch is accused of murdering Mr Falconio, 28, of Hepworth, beside an Outback main road near Barrow Creek, north of Alice Springs, in July, 2001.

Murdoch, 45, will have to appear before magistrates in Darwin, Australia, for the court to decide whether evidence against him warrants a full trial.

The committal hearing has been set for three weeks, beginning on May 17, and a further three weeks in August.

Murdoch, a mech- anic, of Broome, Western Australia, is also charged with the unlawful assault and deprivation of liberty of Mr Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees, of Almondbury, who told police she had been tied up and dumped in the back of a pick-up truck driven by Mr Falconio's attacker.

She managed to escape and raise the alarm.

Mr Falconio's body has never been found, despite air and land searches by police and the efforts of Aboriginal trackers.

Murdoch, who has not yet entered pleas, did not attend today's brief hearing to set the committal date.

Prosecutors say they have more than 144,000 pages of details about the case and plan to call some 60 witnesses, including Miss Lees, at the committal hearing.

If Murdoch is convicted of murder he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.