Vindication at last for Lees after years of public doubt

For Joanne Lees, the verdict marks the end of a nightmare that began on the pitch-black night of July 14, 2001, when Peter Falconio was murdered and she was convinced she was going to be raped or killed, or both.

It also vindicates her against those who questioned her account of the ambush and judged harshly her apparent lack of emotion over her boyfriend's disappearance.

Refusing to be cowed by her attacker, and escaping into the desert in the middle of the night, was an act of supreme courage, the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin was told.

Miss Lees, now 32, displayed remarkable consistency in her story, recounting the details again and again to police, journalists and the court.

Her positive identification of Murdoch was crucial to the case.

"I'd recognise him anywhere," she told the court.

But that did not stop doubts about the veracity of her account emerging in the days immediately after the ambush.

The British and Australian journalists who flocked to the desert town of Alice Springs, where Miss Lees was taken by police after the ordeal, became frustrated by what they saw as her secretiveness.

When she did finally agree to give a press conference, 11 days after the attack, she accused the media of misrepresenting her and answered only three of 13 pre-prepared questions put to her.

So widespread were the rumours and conspiracy theories that Northern Territory police had to specifically deny that Miss Lees was a suspect in the case and said they were "offended" by any such suggestion.

So the questions about the attack lingered. Where was Mr Falconio's body?

What was the motive for the attack? How did Ms Lees escape from her armed assailant?

Why did the attacker's dog not find Miss Lees as she cowered beneath a bush just 27m from the Stuart Highway? Why were Aboriginal trackers not able to find more footprints in the area?

Parallels were drawn with Lindy Chamberlain, the Australian woman wrongly convicted of murdering her baby daughter, Azaria, at Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 1980.

Neither showed the depth of emotion expected of her when she faced the television cameras and the scrutiny of a sceptical nation. "Like Lindy, she didn't cry on cue," said the Bulletin magazine.

The Australian newspaper referred to the "Lindyfication" of Miss Lees. "Until police drag in a man with a four-wheel-drive ute and a gun, she's becoming Lindy II," it said

Further doubt was cast on the backpacker's credibility when it emerged she had an affair behind Mr Falconio's back with another backpacker, Nick Riley.

Questioned about the affair by defence lawyers, she initially denied it, but then admitted she had kept in touch with Mr Riley, sending him emails under the pseudonym "Steph".

The magistrate in the committal hearing warned defence lawyers that Miss Lees' love life was of no relevance to the case, but the admission was enough to raise further doubts over her reliability as a witness.

None of that matters now. Four years and five months after her boyfriend was shot dead in the darkness, Miss Lees' story has finally been accepted for what it is - an extraordinary tale of survival against the odds.