Australia’s most wanted man finally behind bars

Australia’s most wanted man, who eluded officials for seven years by hiding out in dense forests, was captured yesterday and charged with murder, ending a frustrating and at times violent hunt, police said.

Malcolm Naden was bearded, barefoot and wearing muddy clothes when New South Wales police found him just after midnight at a remote house near the town of Gloucester, about 260km north of Sydney. The former slaughterhouse worker has been charged with strangling a cousin to death in 2005 and other violent crimes.

A police dog bit Naden in the raid, which was prompted by a tip to police. Police found a loaded semiautomatic rifle on the property but said no shots were fired during the arrest.

About 50 police officers had been searching for Naden around the clock since December, when police say he shot and wounded an officer during a raid at a campsite.

“Australia’s most wanted man is behind bars,” New South Wales Police commissioner Andrew Scipione said. He called Naden a “master bushman”, an Australian term for a wilderness survival expert.

“He has been in this area for a number of years. He knows it better than the back of his hand,” he said.

Naden was taken to a hospital under heavy guard for treatment of the wound to his leg. The 38-year-old said nothing to reporters as he shuffled, feet shackled and face covered, into a police van after being released from the hospital.

He vanished from the home he shared with his grandparents near the rural city of Dubbo in 2005, shortly after his 24-year-old cousin, Kristy Scholes, was strangled in a bedroom of the house. He quickly became a suspect.

New South Wales premier Barry O’Farrell praised the police for their work.