Loch Ness Cruise boat pilot George Edwards has admitted he faked the Nessie photo he snapped last year by using a fibreglass hump previously used in a National Geographic documentary.
The photo which attracted a lot of attention from across the globe was taken in August, last year near Urquhart Castle, Mr Edwards speaking at the time said;
I did not want to mention my sighting until I was sure that I had not photographed a log or something inanimate in the water in the water. I have friends in the USA who have friends in the military. They had my photo analysed and they have no doubt that I photographed an animate object in the water
However he has now admitted that the photo was indeed a fake and was proud to follow in the traditions of other famous hoaxers, like the Surgeon’s photograph which was taken in 1934 by Dr Kenneth Wilson and promptly published in the Daily Mail. It was later found out that Marmaduke Wetherell had attached a wooden head and neck to a child’s submarine toy after the newspaper had mocked his quest to find the beast.
Mr Edwards said;
I am quite happy to join the rogues’ gallery along with the surgeon who produced the best known picture image of the monster in the world. How do you think Loch Ness would have fared over the years without that picture? I have no guilty feelings at all about what I have done.
The Surgeon’s photograph was taken in 1934 by Dr Kenneth Wilson and promptly published in the Daily Mail. It remains the most famous image associated with the mysterious monster.
The fake fibreglass Nessie hump that was used for the hoax is an old prop created for a 2011 National Geographic documentary entitled “Truth Behind the Loch Ness Monster”
One person who has taken the hump over the whole affair is Kevin Carlyon, Nessie’s self-proclaimed white witch protector, who has vowed to send a ‘psychic torpedo’ in Edwards direction on Halloween.