Her husband, David Gabriel ''Gabe'' Watson, made a surprise plea of guilty to manslaughter instead of facing a murder trial in Queensland, and on Friday was jailed for a term of just under 12 months before he will be deported to the US.

The case has devastated the Thomas family, who were in Australia for the trial. Christina's father, Tommy Thomas, has been highly critical of the US and Australian police investigators, and described the legal system, which allowed the lesser charge, as a ''sham'' and an ''embarrassment''. The perceived leniency of the sentence, almost six years after Ms Watson's death, has sparked outrage in the state of Alabama where Gabe Watson lives.

Ms Watson, 26, was on her honeymoon with her now 32-year-old husband they had been married 11 days when she drowned during a diving trip off Townsville.

At the coronial inquest last year, a fellow diver claimed Watson engaged his wife in a bear hug, after which Watson went to the surface and she sank to the seabed. The coroner found that a jury, properly instructed, could find Watson guilty of murder. While he avoided returning to Australia to face the charge, media coverage and speculation here and in the US included reports of police film footage of Watson desecrating the grave of his former wife, and news of his marriage to his ''lookalike'' current wife.

But earlier this month, Watson returned voluntarily from the United States to face the charge. It was only when he appeared in the Supreme Court in Brisbane that the manslaughter plea was revealed.

In this case, Watson, a trained rescue diver, failed to carry out the accepted procedures to assist a person in difficulty: providing oxygen, removing weights and inflating his wife's buoyancy vest. But the intricacies of what happened will never be heard. Christina Watson's family are convinced Watson murdered his wife. Under our law, they may never know if this is true.

One can only be reminded of the anger and sense of helplessness of the family of Australian university student Britt Lapthorne, who was found dead in Croatia. Police reportedly did not start investigating until eight days after her disappearance, and only then after expressions of distress from her family and anger from the Australian public. It reflected poorly, rightly or wrongly, on the Croatian police and the city of Dubrovnik. It looks as though the Watson case is drawing similar international ire.