Bad bush tucker man’ Malcolm Naden captured after seven years
By Erik West March 22, 2012

After almost seven years on the run in the rugged Australian outback, the country’s most wanted fugitive, Malcolm Naden, known as the “bad bush tucker man”, has been captured and charged with murder.

The 38-year-old outlaw, whose ability to evade a massive police manhunt and live off his bushcraft skills earned him an almost mythic status in Australia, was captured in a midnight police raid in northern New South Wales. The Government claimed the bounty over his head – A$250,000 (£163,000) – was the largest since the days of Ned Kelly in the 19th century.

Naden, 38, a former abattoir worker, appeared briefly in court with no shoes, a shaved head and a thick bushy beard to face charges over the murder of a 24-year-old, Kristy Scholes, who was found strangled in his locked bedroom in Dubbo in 2005. He also faced two counts of sexual assault against a 15-year-old-girl and the shooting of a police officer who closed in on one of his makeshifts camp last December. He did not apply for bail.

But his years on the run were a constant embarrassment for the state’s police and prompted constant reminders that he is “no Robin Hood”.

Naden, known as a quiet recluse, was a martial arts expert and avid reader of the Bible, crime books and survival manuals.

[link to www.theaustralianeye.com]