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Natasha, who was becoming paler by the day through lack of sunlight, was entirely reliant on Scott for food and conversation. It is that dependence which has prompted psychiatrists to speculate on the likely reasons for her self-imposed imprisonment.

Louise Newman, a psychiatrist, has suggested that Natasha might have fallen victim to the so-called Stockholm sydrome, where a person in an isolated and intense relationship with someone else finds it impossible to escape.

The term was coined in the early 1970s when four Swedish hostages seized in a bank hold-up resisted police attempts to free them from their captors.

While Natasha was not held against her will, it is clear that she became fixated by the boyfriend to whom she has returned since her discovery just over a week ago.

An anonymous note — thought perhaps to have come from a member of Mr Black’s family who became suspicious after visiting the house — brought the detectives to the house. Although the couple could face charges of perverting the course of justice, it will be some weeks before police decide what action to take. The case is a severe embarrassment for Queensland police who had wrongly accused the alleged serial killer, Leonard John Fraser, of her murder.

Mr Fraser, 51, is currently on trial for the murder of three other women who disappeared from the Rockhampton area between December 1998 and April 1999.

Although a fellow prisoner, Allan Quinn, has testified that Mr Fraser told him that he had smashed Natasha Ryan across the head as she slept, then dumped her body in a lily pond, the defendant has always denied killing her.

But detectives were certain that they had their man. Although an intense search of the area had failed to find her body, they had secretly taped Mr Fraser allegedly confessing the murder to Quinn.

To add to police embarrassment, it has also emerged that Natasha telephoned a children’s counselling service three weeks before the start of Mr Fraser’s trial.

Calling herself Sally, she told a helpline counsellor that she had been missing for five years and that a man had been charged with her murder.

Although the information was passed on to police no action was taken. A woman police officer faces suspension for failing to relay the call to detectives. Bob Atkinson, Queensland’s Police Commissioner, said: “I have considerable concern about what appears to be a lack of action by a police officer.”

Then there was the expense of the police investigation and the fruitless search for Natasha, which cost state taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds. The waste of money has angered many local people including Peter Beattie, Queensland’s premier. He has pledged to introduce legislation to prevent Natasha receiving money for her story after Australia’s Channel Nine TV channel reportedly paid her more than £100,000 for an exclusive interview. Such is the appetite for Natasha’s personal account of her lost years that Max Markson, a celebrity agent, has been hired to look after the Ryan family’s interests. A veteran of tabloid “buy-ups”, he is already touting book and film options.

Much remains to be told about Natasha’s self-imposed exile. How did she manage to conceal herself so successfully for so long? How did she fill the hours while hidden away? And what really compelled her to live the lie, when a man had been charged with her murder? It was Paul Rutledge, the Crown prosecutor, who broke the news of Natasha’s survival to a stunned court: “I’m pleased to inform the court that Leonard John Fraser is not guilty of the murder of Natasha Anne Ryan. Natasha Ryan is alive.”

Her parents rejoiced that she had come back from the dead. Her mother, Jenny, could not believe the news as she was escorted to the police station to be reunited with the daughter.

Her father, Robert, was so sceptical when police telephoned him to say that she had been found alive that he asked her to reveal his pet name for her.

There was no hesitation. “Grasshopper,” she replied.

As he fought back tears, Robert, who has since remarried, recalled the memorial service that he had held for his daughter in a crematorium chapel three years after she disappeared, to give the family “closure”.

“I don’t believe that Natasha would have let me go through all the pain if she was out there,” he said at the time.

Today he says he is just happy to have her back. “She was very pale and very confused and frightened, but she’s alive and that means more to me than anything,” he said.

Back in the Queensland Supreme Court the case against Mr Fraser has resumed, but he has one less charge to face.

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