Aussie boy cycles almost 1,000km to prove bullies wrong

A 15-year-old Australian boy rode his bike more than 950 kilometres away after disappearing from home.

Ethan Johnson, who has Asperger's syndrome, went on the trip to prove to "bullies" that he isn't an idiot and he spent his jaunt sleeping under bridges and at lorry stop points.

But when Ethan returned home his mother Tammy Johnson, who was putting money onto his keycard each day so that he could eat in fast food restaurants, was surprised at how thin the youngster was.

She said: "He is skin and bone. I’ll have to feed him up again."