But this day's would-be convict isn't an urchin accused of stealing bread or cattle, and he'd be quite happy to return to Australia, his home country. Computer hacker, journalist and WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has just been freed on bail.

This was back when charges of espionage from the USA were warned of by his defence team but not yet admitted. Here, he was bailed over charges of sexual assault from Sweden, charges which would be discontinued in 2019.

A free man, Assange stood tall and proud. Beside him his legal team glowed: famed human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson, star media lawyer Mark Stephens, and a young Australian from Berry, Jennifer Robinson, former Bomaderry High vice-captain and Oxford Rhodes Scholar.

In December 2010 Robinson hadn't made it home for Christmas but she was pleased at that verdict, and her career in human rights law was flourishing. Assange, meanwhile, couldn't have known just how fleeting his freedom would be.

Fast forward almost ten years to the day, and Robinson once again didn't make it home for Christmas. She was close, but two weeks in hotel quarantine meant she wasn't out until the 27^th. So when she won the case against Assange's extradition to the US, with the verdict dropping on January 4, she appeared at the hearing remotely, logging in from a laptop in Sydney.

Assange, last seen when being arrested and taken to London's Belmarsh prison, is now a shell of his former self, beset with mental health problems and, according to expert testimony accepted by the court, a suicide risk if he were extradited.

Robinson, however, has continued to ascend and now carries substantial authority along with her brief on the walk to court. It has been a tough but spectacular year for the one-time ANU university medallist, who also appeared for US actor Amber Heard as her ex-husband Johnny Depp sued UK paper the Sun for libel over claims he bashed Heard. Depp lost and Robinson later said she would be pursuing justice for Heard in the US as well.

By November she was described by one paper as "the A-list's go-to lawyer", a term which would no doubt embarrass Robinson, but after running the gauntlet of a sometimes fierce media and public limelight, day after day during hearings, with Heard and also with Assange's partner Stella Morris, Robinson has learned how to let the slings and arrows bounce off her armour.

"I've done a lot of other important cases during the year; they just didn't get as much media attention," Robinson told the Mercury from Sydney on Thursday.

"But of course both of those cases have massive ramifications for freedom of speech in different areas and I feel very committed to both of them - in principle and on behalf of my clients.

"The decision in the Depp case speaks for itself - and it's now on appeal so there's a limit to what I can say about that."

She had a difficult choice: see her family for Christmas or be present at the High Court for an Assange verdict. In the year of remote work, family won.

"I came home in March - I got the last flight through Hong Kong before the transit closed. I spent quite a bit of time here in Australia down the South Coast with family, and [in] Sydney working remotely, until I went back in June for the Heard case, and for Julian's hearing.

"I was hoping to come back sooner but with COVID-related stuff I got back in December but had to quarantine for two weeks - including Christmas Day, which was a bit of a shame, in order to see my family."

Her time has been spent on the South Coast, where her father trains horses, or working from Sydney, far from London's Doughty Street Chambers where she joined Robertson in 2016.

While the verdict against extradition was a relief for Assange and his family, it was bittersweet.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled he was a high enough risk of suicide that extraditing him would be "oppressive". But the judgment was confined to this; she found against the defence's arguments that Assange's publication of sensitive intelligence information should be protected as a public interest disclosure, and necessary for the function of a free press.

Robinson, whose passion for the case was fuelled by human rights implications, said this was cold comfort for journalists. "Julian's case is obviously a win for him and a huge relief for him and his family," she said.

"However, the judgment itself is no reprieve for journalists. While it's great the judge agreed that he should not be extradited on the grounds that it would be oppressive, that's a very narrow finding on the basis of his mental health and the decade of mistreatment that he's suffered to date, and his particular medical condition.

"This defence is not going to be available to other journalists. That's why from a free speech perspective it's concerning.

"Unfortunately she agreed with the prosecution in her case theory, which criminalises public interest journalistic activity.

"It's had a chilling impact on public interest journalism already. Free speech and media organisations have universally condemned it and there is widespread concern about its ramifications. For that reason alone it should be shut down.

"The US should be closing this case and the Australian government should be doing more to make representations on behalf of Julian as an Australian citizen to have this case closed down so he can get on with his life and come home."

As for whether Assange would be able to return to Australia, Robinson points out that he has only defeated an extradition bid to the US from Great Britain - if he were to return to Australia he may face a fresh extradition attempt.

The USA has more than a week to lodge an appeal. Assange's legal team sought his release on bail but Justice Baraitser rejected this so he remains in Belmarsh.

"We have ongoing concerns about his health, and particularly his health situation while being inside a high security prison where there;'s been a COVID outbreak," Robinson said. "Now that he's won, he should be allowed to return home to his family so they can make up for the time that's been taken from them."