Tsunami hero arrested after returning home

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 | Source: DPA

SYDNEY: An Australian man who earned praise for saving more than a dozen lives during the Asian tsunami disaster was arrested on his return home Monday, after police recognized him in a television interview from Thailand.

Queensland man Thomas Connell had been dubbed "the good Samaritan of Patong Beach" for his rescue role during the tsunami disaster on the Thai resort island of Phuket, Australian news agency AAP reported.

But police said they recognized Connell, whom they had been hunting for two years, after he appeared on television talking about his rescue efforts. Police greeted Connell at Brisbane airport and charged him with assault causing bodily harm relating to a home invasion in 2002.

Connell said police had the wrong person. "To be a lifesaver, saving 20 people, and then come back to my own country and I'm going straight into a bloody jail cell? It's mistaken identity," he said. -- DPA

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