Lees admits e-mail relationship

Joanne Lees (hidden from view under a blanket) arriving at court

The girlfriend of missing Briton Peter Falconio has admitted she used a second e-mail account to correspond with another man at the time he disappeared.

Joanne Lees, 30, resumed her evidence after some days' delay at a committal hearing in Darwin of the man accused of murdering her boyfriend in 2001.

Prosecutors believe he was shot in an outback ambush by ex-mechanic Bradley Murdoch, 45. Mr Murdoch denies this.

But on Wednesday the defence focused on Ms Lees' contact with a man in Sydney.

'Secret e-mails'

Ms Lees admitted she had been in an e-mail relationship with another man, who used the pseudonym "Steph", at the time of Mr Falconio's death.

I put it to you isn't Steph the pseudonym you had given to a man called Nick, with whom you were corresponding? Defence counsel

Ms Lees was asked by the defence counsel whether, when she was in Alice Springs after the alleged attack, she had told a police officer she needed to delete messages from a "secret e-mail account".

Ms Lees admitted she had a second account but not that it was secret.

The defence counsel then asked her: "You were getting emails from Steph, who is Steph?"

She said: "I don't know."

The lawyer then said: "I put it to you isn't Steph the pseudonym you had given to a man called Nick, with whom you were corresponding?"

She agreed, and when asked who Nick was, said: "He's a friend of mine from Sydney."

Ms Lees denied defence claims she had been having an affair with the man.

Description

The defence earlier pointed out that the type of electric flex used to make the handcuffs allegedly used by her attacker had also been found in the couple's van.

Lawyers asked Ms Lees whether there was tape of the sort used for the handcuffs in the van as well, to which she replied she had not been aware of any.

Ms Lees, from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, gave the magistrate a detailed description of her alleged assailant.

Ms Lees described hearing a shot when Mr Falconio left their campervan before she was grabbed by the assailant at gunpoint and forced into his truck in July 2001.

Bradley Murdoch denies ambushing the couple in the Australian outback

"He pushed me in the front and sat 20 or 30cm away.

"He was tall, over six foot, hunched, kind of stooping," she said, "I could see the lines on his face. His eyes were droopy and had lines under them."

The man accused of the murder of Mr Falconio and unlawful assault and deprivation of liberty of Ms Lees sat taking notes and occasionally shook his head.

The hearing that will decide if Mr Murdoch will face trial for murder was delayed for eight days because of legal arguments over reporting restrictions.

On Wednesday the magistrate closed the court after two hours of testimony by Ms Lees, to hear evidence covered by the bans.

The hearing was later adjourned until Thursday.

The body of Mr Falconio, 28, of Hepworth, West Yorkshire, has never been found but prosecutors claim there is evidence that he was murdered.

The six-week committal hearing to determine whether Mr Murdoch will face a full trial is being held over two three-week periods - with the second due in August.