Runaway faces court after killer charged with her murder

Australian runaway faces court after serial killer charged with her murder

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - An Australian woman who hid for four years in her boyfriend's house and was thought to have been murdered by a notorious serial killer appeared in court Tuesday charged with prompting a false police investigation.

Natasha Ryan, 21, and her boyfriend Scott Black, 28, are facing trial before the Rockhampton Magistrates Court in Queensland state for failing to stop a massive police manhunt that began when Ryan ran away from home in 1998.

A series of investigations costing up to 500,000 Australian dollars ($410,250 Cdn) failed to uncover Ryan's whereabouts, and convicted serial killer Leonard Fraser was eventually charged with her murder.

Police discovered Ryan hiding in a cupboard in Black's home following an anonymous tip during Fraser's trial in 2003.

Black is now serving a 12-month jail sentence for perjury after lying to police about Ryan's whereabouts.

Lawyers for both Ryan and Black sought to have the charges dismissed in court on Tuesday.

"This charge does not cover people who merely know that police are wasting time and resources and fail to take steps to bring it to an end," Ryan's lawyer John McInnes told the court. "Some people run away. Now running away by itself is not enough to constitute an offence."

Black's lawyer, Anne Demack, also sought a dismissal of the charge, saying the police investigations were launched after Fraser allegedly told a fellow inmate that he had killed Ryan.