Lees tied up to show how she escaped

Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio in their van before they were ambushed in the Australian outback in 2001. Picture / Reuters

DARWIN - Joanne Lees was yesterday bound with a man's tie and asked to kneel on the floor of the Northern Territory Supreme Court, just metres from her alleged attacker.

The 32-year-old Englishwoman demonstrated for the jury how she slipped her bound hands from behind her back to her front, as she hid after escaping her attacker.

Ms Lees was giving evidence for the fourth day in the trial into the alleged murder of her boyfriend Peter Falconio.

Broome mechanic Bradley John Murdoch, 47, has pleaded not guilty to murder, and not guilty to unlawfully assaulting Ms Lees and depriving her of her liberty on an outback highway in 2001.

Ms Lees has told the court she was threatened with a gun, punched in the head and bound with her wrists behind her back with home-made handcuffs made of cable ties.

After she escaped her attacker, she said she moved her hands underneath her body to her front, as she hid in bushes off the Stuart Highway.

Chief Justice Brian Martin closed the court as Ms Lees' hands were bound.

After the court was reopened, she moved to the centre of the courtroom - just metres from Murdoch sitting in the dock - and kneeled in the well of the court.

She then moved her hands from behind her back to her front, taking just one or two seconds. Murdoch sat expressionless in the dock.

Ms Lees finished giving evidence this afternoon, with truck driver Vincent Millar the next witness due to appear. The trial continues.

- AAP