Crocodile attacks teenager trying to impress girl

Lee De Paauw said he escaped the clutches of the crocodile by punching it repeatedly
Lee De Paauw said he escaped the clutches of the crocodile by punching it repeatedly

An Australian teenager keen to impress a young British tourist with his bravado ended up instead in the jaws of a large crocodile.

“I just wanted to show the backpacker. I got her number and her name is Sophie,”said Lee De Paauw, 18, from his north Queensland hospital bed, where he is being treated for severe injuries to an arm.

Mr De Paauw, who had been drinking with foreign backpackers on Saturday evening, leapt into the crocodile-infested Johnstone River at Innisfail in north Queensland, despite appeals from his companions, who included a British backpacker, Sophie Patterson, 24, from Yeovil in Somerset, not to enter the water. He was savaged and rolled by a crocodile soon after jumping.

“There was blood everywhere and he just wouldn’t