Missing Briton no trivial matter

DARWIN (Reuters) - The hit board game Trivial Pursuit has been pulled from shelves in Australia's Northern Territory because of a question about the mystery outback disappearance of British tourist Peter Falconio, a court has heard.


A committal hearing resumed on Monday to determine whether Australian truck driver Bradley Murdoch should stand trial for Falconio's murder and the abduction of Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees on a lonely outback highway in July 2001.


The Northern Territory's Director of Public Prosecutions Rex told Darwin's magistrates court that the recently released 20th edition of Trivial Pursuit contained a question which could breach suppression orders imposed on some pieces of evidence.


The suppression orders prohibit the publication of some of the evidence heard by the court since the committal hearing began in May because the prosecution and defence both fear publication could contaminate jurors in any future trial.


The Northern Territory, with a population of only about 200,000, offers only a tiny pool of potential jurors and the case has already attracted massive media attention in Australia and Britain.


Wild said efforts would be made to track down copies of the game which have already been sold in the Northern Territory but he did not know how successful those attempts would be.


The hearing resumed on Monday after a two-month recess.


Falconio and Lees were attacked when they stopped after the driver of a white four-wheel drive truck waved them down on a moonless night on the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs on July 14, 2001.


Falconio's body has never been found. Murdoch has not entered a plea.