Philobiblon

Australian editors are traditionally interested in the Northern Territory only for crocodile wrestling stories and lurid murder trials, the latter category in which the Falconio murder trial definitely falls.

(A brief summary: a British couple were driving along an Outback highway. She reports that their car was flagged down, the man was shot, she was tied up, but fled and hid in the bush for five hours, before flagging down a passing truck. The boyfriend is presumed dead, but no body has been found.)

As might be predicted, media coverage depicting Darwin as “Hicksville” has upset the locals. The Chief Justice is ensuring he gets his name in all the papers, asking of the writer of the offending article: “How did he get out? Presumably by horse and carriage?” Entirely in line with the script.

Also in line with the script, all aspects of the reputation of the dead man’s partner is being trashed in court, despite the fact that she is a victim of forced imprisonment, serious assault etc and spent many hours in fear of her life. The fact that all of the details she gave of her ordeal, no doubt in a state of shock soon after, and subsequently, don’t exactly square up, is hardly a surprise. From what I know of the nature of memory in shocking circumstances (some from personal experience), she will have eventually constructed out of fragmentary memories a coherent narrative for herself; there’s nothing solid about memory.

Actually, she’s already been found guilty of not being sufficiently “womanly” – ie breaking down in public – just like Lindy Chamberlain.