Tag Archive for 'Jamie Neale'

Missing Bushwalker Jamie Neale Has Falling Out With His Dad

Published on July 25, 2009 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

 The story of missing bushwalker Jamie Neale is turning more into a soap opera than anything else now:

HE WAS lost in the wilderness, cold and hungry for 12 days.

Now Jamie Neale has been abandoned by his father, who has rushed home to London to be the first to sell his son’s amazing tale of survival to the British press.

Less than 24 hours after the 19-year-old was released from hospital still suffering the effects of hypothermia and exhaustion, The Daily Telegraph reports his father Richard Cass left his son behind in Sydney in a dash home to cash in on the backpacker’s misadventure.

Cass, who told Australian media last week he was not interested in profiting from his son’s rescue and survival story, is understood to have asked his son for a 50 per cent share of Neale’s deal with Channel 9′s 60 Minutes program.

Not content with his son’s offer to cover his father’s airfares and the cost of a drinks celebration with rescue workers at Hotel Gearin in Katoomba, Cass was also believed to be upset by his son’s treatment of him during the Tara Brown interview.

Neale hinted at the pair’s estranged relationship when he told 60 Minutes he was “surprised” his father had flown to Sydney to join the rescue effort.

The admission is understood to have angered Cass, who had crafted a perfect parent image with the media.

Neale had refused his father’s plea to split the $100,000 he was paid for his story, while honouring his pledge to donate proceeds from the deal to the emergency services who helped find him.  [The Daily Telegraph]

Good on Jamie Neale for repaying the authorities for whatever the cost was for his rescue. That is good to hear.  Here is what Jamie’s mom has to say about his father’s greedy ways:

Neale’s mother Jean blasted her ex-husband for seeking payment, telling The Sun

“He phoned me yesterday to say he was selling his story because he was angry Jamie is refusing to share the money with him,” she said.  “His behaviour is outrageous.”  

I don’t know what to think about this story any more.

Video of Lost Bushwalker Jamie Neale On 60 Minutes

Published on July 22, 2009 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Here is a short video that shows the 60 Minutes Interview with controversial lost British bushwalker Jamie Neale:

Is the Story of Lost Bushwalker Jamie Neale A Hoax?

Published on July 18, 2009 in Australia in the News. 11 Comments Tags: , , .

Lost British backpacker Jamie Neale has made big headlines in Australia in recent days and now it appears he has made an even bigger pay day:

BRITISH backpacker Jamie Neale has returned to the bush in the NSW Blue Mountains to tell a TV crew how his bushwalk went so horribly wrong.

The 19-year-old was lost for 12 days in enduring sub-zero temperatures, living off seeds and weeds and keeping warm under strips of bark.

He wandered off a walking track during a planned day hike on July 3 and lost hope of ever getting out of the rugged terrain before emerging on Wednesday.

Mr Neale was taken back into bushland on Saturday by Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes, which paid $200,000 for his story.

The teenager left hospital on Friday and is set to travel to Perth to visit relatives.

His father, Richard Cass, left Sydney on Saturday to return home after the extensive search for his son.

Before boarding his flight he again defended his son’s honesty as doubters in Australia and the UK continue to question how the backpacker survived in the cold without food.  [AAP]

Whether or not him being lost in the woods for 12 days is a hoax or not is currently a big topic of debate:

But Mr Cass, 54, said: ‘When I told him about the hoax claims he was pretty angry about that.

‘He’s aware that people are disbelieving. But I know my boy and I know  he’s been out there for that period of time.

‘He’s been through a God awful experience and for him to then not be  believed, that will obviously be quite psychologically damaging.’    

Callers to Sydney radio stations have asked why Mr Neale did not hear the search parties who were looking for him in the area he was lost in, roughly  between a rocky outcrop known as the Ruined Castle and Mt Solitary.

They also asked why he did not stay in a clearing while a search helicopter was scouring the landscape.

Other doubters have said it seemed an amazing coincidence that on the very day his father, who had flown out to Australia from his home in Watford, was due to fly back to England, Mr Neale should have stumbled upon two bushwalkers who had set up camp and word went out that he had been  found.  [Daily Mail]

Like this park ranger I am eager as well to hear what he was eating:

Park ranger Geoff Luscomb described Mr Neale’s survival as ‘remarkable’  and said he wanted to learn more about the ‘bush tucker’ he had eaten.

Mr Neale has told his father he lived on seeds and a rocket-like grass, but Mr Luscombe said he could not be sure what the backpacker meant by his description of that grass.     

‘I’m just very keen to hear all about that – how, being an Englishman  with no previous knowledge of survival in the Australian bush, he managed to  stay out there for 12 days eating these foods that I would like to know more about.     

‘I’m not doubting his story, because it really is a remarkable story,  but I am very keen to hear in detail how he managed it,’ said Mr Luscombe.  [Daily Mail]

I guess the truth will probably come out in due time, but for someone who ate nothing, grass and seeds for 12 days in freezing temperatures he looks remarkably well.