Oz backpacker denies faking ordeal

A BRITISH teenager who survived 12 nights in the Australian bush yesterday described himself as a “total idiot” and denied faking his ordeal.

Jamie Neale insisted he feared starving to death in the wilderness. Yesterday, he returned to the hiking trail where he became lost in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, to recount his ordeal for a television current affairs show which reportedly paid him a over €110,000.

The 19-year-old said he had underestimated the distance and difficulty of the Australian terrain.

“I admit, I have been a total idiot,” he told Channel Nine television. “In the UK, you walk for a day and you end up in a pub, but out here you can get lost so easily, you’ve got to be more prepared and think about what you’re doing.”

Neale said his greatest fear was a lingering death from starvation. He ate wild nuts to sustain himself even though he was unsure whether they were poisonous. Battling leeches and freezing temperatures, he told how he prepared for death by writing letters to his family.

“I was thinking I might die on that mountain,” he said. “I had actually written some goodbye notes and things to my family saying my last walk, saying sorry, explaining how I’d got lost and different things like that.”

Neale’s story has made headlines around the world and a publicity agent whisked the north London teen away from waiting media in a black Range Rover when he was released from hospital on Friday.

Some Australian news websites have carried comments accusing Neale of staging his survival feat to secure a lucrative media deal, but the teenager said his extraordinary story was not a hoax.

“I know what happened,” he said. “I know the people who were out searching for me, they know that it happened and that’s good enough for me.

“People can say what they want because I’m not lying. It’s the truth.”

Neale’s father, Richard Cass, and his agent, Sean Anderson, of celebrity management firm 22 Management, have both said profits would be donated to the youth’s rescuers.

The teen set off for a solo hike on July 3, but got hopelessly lost, eating only seeds and weeds with just a lightweight jacket for warmth in freezing overnight conditions.

He told police he had torn strips of bark from native paperbark trees to wrap himself in at night, and went into “survival mode” once he stopped hearing search helicopters fly by.

Police have backed Neale’s story, interviewing him at length after his rescue and saying his descriptions of areas he had walked through and slept in checked out.

In London, former Australian prime minister John Howard said Neale was “very foolhardy” and owed a great debt of gratitude to the search parties.

“I think he was very foolhardy, but more importantly he’s very lucky and he should spend a lot of the rest of his life thanking the search party and his lucky stars,” he told Sky News television. “I guess the fact that he was very physically fit was a crucial factor and a reminder to young people to remain fit because you never know when you might need that fitness.”