Tsunami hero held for burglary
04/01/2005 09:29  - (SA)  

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Sydney - An Australian man who was hailed a hero for allegedly saving more than a dozen lives in Thailand during the tsunami disaster has been arrested by local police on outstanding assault and burglary charges.

Thomas David Connell was handcuffed and arrested by Queensland state police after he stepped off the plane at Brisbane International Airport on Monday.

Police said they recognised Connell, whom they had been seeking for two years, after he gave a television interview from Thailand that aired in Australia last week.

The 32-year-old businessman was dubbed by local media as "the good Samaritan of Patong Beach", for his role in allegedly saving as many as 20 people during the December 26 tsunami that smashed over the island resort of Phuket.

'I'm not a bloody hoodlum'

Connell appeared in Brisbane magistrate's court late on Monday and was granted bail until his next court appearance in February.

Connell said he spent most of the day in a holding cell suffering flashbacks of his ordeal, and that police had mistaken him for someone else.

Connell said: "To be a lifesaver, saving 20 people, and then come back to my home country and I'm going straight into a bloody jail cell with hoodlums all day. I'm not a bloody hoodlum."

- SAPA

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