The man convicted of killing British backpacker Peter Falconio has withdrawn his appeal, but his lawyers have vowed to fight on.

Bradley John Murdoch is serving a life sentence with a 28-year non-parole period for the 2001 murder but filed for leave to appeal his conviction and a retrial due to what his lawyers called “a miscarriage of justice”.

But a notice to withdraw that appeal was lodged at the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal on Friday.

All decisions on submitting and withdrawing appeals had come from Murdoch himself, a spokesman for his lawyers said, but denied Murdoch had withdrawn his appeal due to having a weak case.

“Not at all,” the spokesman said.

“It’s certainly not over yet. There’s more to come.”

Murdoch has maintained his innocence over his 2005 conviction for the 2001 murder of Mr Falconio, whose body has never been found.

He believed a News Corp interview with prosecutor Rex Wild QC published in November last year showed that the prosecution felt Joanne Lees, Mr Falconio’s girlfriend and the key witness in the case, was so unlikeable that she might have endangered their case, and so groomed her “secretly, deliberately and improperly” to improve her behaviour in order to obtain a conviction from the jury.

Mr Wild said Ms Lees was a risky witness whose control over her own image was so total that she projected an aura of superiority and defiance that wasn’t being well received by the general public.

In the interview, he compared her to Lindy Chamberlain, and said her focus and cool could have been misinterpreted by the jury.

She didn’t behave the way heroines and victims were expected to behave, he said.

Ms Lees initially refused to see Mr Falconio’s family when they arrived in Alice Springs, and didn’t speak with his brothers during the trial.

It was also revealed by police that she had been having an affair in Sydney.

Mr Wild said he was glad to hear the appeal had been withdrawn.

“Relieved isn’t the word for that; I’m pleased,” he told AAP on Friday.