Terror Australia

She couldn't even cry out. After six hours hiding from the gunman who is thought to have executed her boyfriend by the roadside and trussed her up to keep for later, Joanne Lees stepped out of the inky dark of the central Australian desert night. Her hands bound so tightly her wrists were bleeding, and with electrical tape looped round her neck and gagging her mouth, the 27-year-old British tourist stumbled into the headlights.

Barreling south along the Northern Territory's Stuart Highwayabout 280 km north of Alice Springspast midnight on July 15, truck driver Vince Miller only glimpsed...