Charlotte Murray murderer loses appeal against conviction

A man found guilty of murdering his former fiancée, whose body has never been found, has had an appeal dismissed.

Johnny Miller, 53, was attempting to overturn his conviction for murdering 34-year-old Charlotte Murray in 2012.

Lawyers for Mr Miller argued he should have been acquitted of murdering Ms Murray following a trial at Dungannon Crown Court in 2019.

They said the trial wrongly continued without proof she was no longer alive.

Ms Murray had been living with Mr Miller in Moy, County Tyrone at the time of her death.

The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge had dealt with the case with "scrupulous fairness" and ruled that the conviction was not unsafe.

Following the guilty verdict Mr Miller was ordered to serve a minimum 16 years of his life sentence in prison.

He has maintained he did not kill Ms Murray and claimed she vanished after leaving him to start a new life.

Last year detectives urged Mr Miller to break his silence and reveal the location of her remains.

During the trial the prosecution argued that Mr Miller had sent text messages to Ms Murray to create a false impression she was still alive.

Mobile cell site analysis also showed her phone never left their house in Roxborough Heights in Moy following her alleged disappearance.

Police later drained a quarry near Benburb to search for Ms Murray's body but nothing was found.

The Court of Appeal heard arguments from Mr Miller's lawyers that the trial continued without proof that Ms Murray was no longer alive.

It was also claimed that that she could have been killed by someone else.

A defence lawyer said that there were "were reasonable alternative explanations" for what might have happened to her.

The judgement of the Court of Appeal was delivered by Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan and rejected all arguments put forward by Mr Miller's defence.

"Some of the alleged irregularities were not irregularities at all, and those which did arise were corrected during the trial process or were not of material nature as to cause us to question the safety of the conviction in any respect," she said.

"The judge fairly dealt with all the complicated evidence in this case in a manner which left the fact-finding function to the jury, which is as it should be.

"Accordingly, we refuse leave on all grounds and dismiss this appeal."