THE first week of the trial for the Outback murder of Peter Falconio, the British backpacker, ended in a show of reconciliation yesterday when his girlfriend gave his parents a kiss on the cheek as she left court.

Days after Joanne Lees admitted having an affair without her boyfriend’s knowledge, she walked down the steps of the court flanked by Joan and Luciano Falconio and their sons, Paul and Nick. She then stopped to kiss Mr and Mrs Falconio on the cheek before entering a waiting police car.

The previous day, Miss Lees left the court with the Falconio brothers on either side of her after completing her evidence — the first time that she had left the court with members of her boyfriend’s family.

The 32-year-old has been giving evidence this week against Bradley John Murdoch, a drug runner who is accused of murdering Mr Falconio, 28, and attempting to abduct her in 2001.

Yesterday, the jury at the Northern Territory Supreme Court, in Darwin, heard from a doctor who examined Miss Lees the day after her ordeal.

Matthew Wright, who saw Miss Lees at the Alice Springs Hospital, cast doubt on a part of her testimony when he said that he had told police that she had denied being hit in the head. However, there was no record of this in his medical notes.

Miss Lees told police that she was threatened with a gun to her head, tied up with her hands behind her back and hit across the face before being put into the back of her attacker’s vehicle.

The court was also told by an Aboriginal woman that she saw a “big white vehicle” pull on to a remote desert highway on the night Mr Falconio disappeared.

Pamela Brown, from the small community of Ti Tree, said that she saw the vehicle pull on to the Stuart Highway. Mrs Brown said that she knew the area well through hunting and that she then saw an orange campervan parked farther along on the side of the road, with its lights off. She did not see anyone outside the van.

Earlier in the week, Miss Lees, a learning support assistant from Brighton, told the court that Mr Murdoch was the man responsible for her boyfriend’s death and wept as she recalled the events of July 14, 2001.

Asked by Rex Wild, QC, for the prosecution, if she could see Mr Falconio’s killer, Miss Lees, in one of the week’s most dramatic moments, turned to face Mr Murdoch and replied: “Yes, I’m looking at him.”

Mr Murdoch, of Broome, Western Australia, denies murdering Mr Falconio and abducting and assaulting Miss Lees after flagging down their campervan on a remote highway north of Alice Springs.

The couple, who lived together in Brighton, had been travelling in Australia for more than six months as part of a round-the-world trip when they were attacked. Asked by the judge, Chief Justice Brian Martin, to describe her emotions during the attack, she said: “When I asked him if he was going to rape me, I was just so frightened. I was more scared of being raped then I was of dying and being shot by the man.”

Crying, and with her voice breaking, Miss Lees continued: “When I asked him if he had shot Pete, he didn’t give an answer right away.

“Then the realisation hit me that he might have killed Pete.”

Miss Lees eventually managed to escape from the van and hid for five hours in the bush before she was rescued by a lorry driver.

On the first day of the trial, she also admitted meeting a man called Nick through colleagues at the Dymocks bookshop in Sydney and having “intimate” relations with him while still going out with Mr Falconio.

She said that she had kept their relationship secret from her boyfriend and admitted that it had “overstepped the boundary of friendship”.

The trial was adjourned until Monday, when Mrs Brown will be cross-examined.

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