Dad disowns Australia's lost-and-found Brit

Jul 26, 2009, 8:48 GMT

   Sydney - The father of the British teenager who survived 12 days lost in the Australian wilderness has disowned his son over the division of spoils from an exclusive contract they negotiated for telling their harrowing story on television, news reports said Sunday.

   Jaime Neale and his father, Richard Cass, were reported to have fallen out over how the 200,000-Australian-dollar (160,000-US-dollar) fee should be split.

   The 19-year-old, who was found alive Wednesday just 15 kilometres from where he went missing in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, remains in Australia.

   Cass, who had flown out from London to join the search, returned to Britain to tell his side of the story to London newspaper The Mail on Sunday.

   'I feel I have been robbed by my own son,' Cass, 54, told the paper. 'I was so glad when he was found but it's gone from being such a feel-good thing to being murderously nasty. The son I found isn't the son I went out to look for.'

   Neale, who is not well enough to fly, admitted there had been a tiff over money.

   'I don't plan to get into a public slanging match with my father,' Neale said. 'Any issues I have with him I'll deal with in private.'

   Cass, who reportedly walked out on his wife when Neale was 3, was an integral part of the story. Told the chances of finding his son alive were very slim, Cass was waiting at Sydney airport for a flight home when he received a text message that the lad had been found.

   He was rushed by helicopter to Neale's hospital bedside. Photos of their reunion were flashed around the world.