Joanne’s secret lover
Face of the other man in Outback murder case
HIS name has cropped up regularly in the Australian Outback murder trial. But until now his face has not been seen.
This is Nick Reilly, the lover Joanne Lees had an affair with behind her boyfriend Peter Falconio’s back only weeks before he was murdered.
Years after their month-long liaison, the 31-year- old is said to be embarrassed that his name has featured so prominently in the court case in Darwin, where Bradley Murdoch is standing trial for murder.
He is mortified that he has been used by Murdoch’s defence lawyers to attack Miss Lees, especially since he had left Australia by the time of Mr Falconio’s murder in July 2001.
Mr Reilly’s name first entered the public domain – misspelled Riley in court reports – last year in a sensational twist to the case. During committal stages, it emerged that Miss Lees regularly cheated on Mr Falconio.
Even though she was sharing an apartment with the 28- year- old, she would meet up with Mr Reilly once a week under the guise of meeting a girlfriend.
The pair communicated through secret e-mails, with Miss Lees addressing Mr Reilly using the pseudonym ‘Steph’.
It was even claimed in one Australian newspaper that at one point she introduced the two men.
When the claims were put to Miss Lees in court, she at first denied them but later admitted the truth, as Mr Falconio’s family listened in astonishment.
In her testimony last month, Miss Lees was more forthright about the relationship with Mr Reilly, who she met while working in a bookshop in Sydney in 2001.
‘ We were friends and we overstepped the boundary of friendship,’ she told the jury. ‘He was a good friend and we became close and we were intimate at one time.’
Although the affair ended before Miss Lees and Mr Falconio set off in their camper van on their fateful journey to the Outback, Mr Reilly made vague plans to meet up later in Berlin, but never did.
His year-long working holiday at an end, Mr Reilly flew back to Britain via the U.S. Since his return, he has worked in IT for the Swiss Re insurance company in London.
According to one friend, he has been ‘ severely embarrassed’ at his name emerging in the court case. ‘ As far as he’s concerned, he had absolutely nothing to do with what happened and he wasn’t even in the same continent when the murder took place,’ said a friend.
‘He was appalled when the lawyers introduced his name and used him as a stick to try to damage Joanne’s credibility.
‘ He doesn’t want to be used that way and he would never want to talk about his relationship with her – it barely lasted a month, after all.’