Travel agent Joanne Lees relived the harrowing moment when she feared she was about to be raped and killed on a remote highway in the Australian outback.

Miss Lees, from Hove, told a court how she begged boyfriend Peter Falconio not to pull over when a man flagged down their camper van in July 2001.

But 28-year-old Brighton University graduate Mr Falconio got out, to be confronted by a man brandishing a gun.

Miss Lees, 30, was giving evidence at the committal hearing in the case of 45-year-old mechanic Bradley John Murdoch, who is charged with murdering Mr Falconio.

She was allowed to testify from behind a wooden screen to avoid having to meet Murdoch's eye.

The dock microphone was also switched off so she could not hear him.

Miss Lees told how a man in a white four-wheel-drive vehicle flagged them down on the Stuart Highway in central Australia on July 14, 2001, indicating there were sparks coming from their exhaust.

Mr Falconio went to the back of the van "to investigate" and asked his girlfriend to rev the engine so he could check the exhaust.

She said: "I heard a bang, like the sound of a vehicle backfiring, like the sound of a gunshot.

"I turned around to look through the window and I saw a man there with a gun."

She said she was shaking as he ordered her to switch off the engine.

She told how earlier that night the pair had watched the sunset at Ti Tree before heading north.

She said: "We chatted and sat and watched the sunset - beautiful."

Rex Wild, prosecuting, had earlier read to the court in Darwin, Australia, from a statement Miss Lees made to police after Mr Falconio's disappearance.

She told how the attacker bound her arms with cable ties and cloth tape, punched her in the head and placed a canvas sack over her head.

She asked if he was going to rape her but he only replied: "Shut up and you won't get shot."

He dumped her in the back of his truck but she managed to slide out of the vehicle. An attempt to free her arms by using lip balm on the cable ties failed, however.

She hid in desert scrub for several hours before flagging down a passing truck, which took her to the Barrow Creek Hotel in the early hours of July 15.

Police in helicopters and on motorbikes were helped by Aboriginal trackers in the hunt for Mr Falconio's body but with no success.

At the end of this committal hearing, which is expected to last several weeks, magistrate Alisdair McGregor will decide whether the evidence is strong enough to merit a full jury trial.

Murdoch denies murdering Mr Falconio and assaulting and abducting Miss Lees.

If convicted of murder, he would face a mandatory life sentence.

The hearing continues.