A boatman admitted yesterday that a photo he claimed was the Loch Ness Monster was a fake.
The image went round the world a year ago and brought vast media attention to George Edwards at his home in Drumnadrochit on the shores of the world-famous loch.
But now in a bizarre twist, Mr Edwards faces the wrath of a white witch for his deception and has had a curse placed on his boat.
After taking the photo last August, the Loch Ness Cruises skipper said the object in the water was the mysterious monster.
He even claimed that friends in the US military had confirmed the item in the water was “animate”.
But it is understood he may have used a Nessie fibreglass hump used in a National Geographic documentary to create the fake picture.
His actions have led white witch Kevin Carylon – the self-professed High Priest of Loch Ness and Protector of Nessie – to place a curse on his boat.
Mr Carlyon, from St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, said: “He has duped many people into travelling on his boat in the summer season in the hope that they too would see Nessie.”
Mr Carlyon believes that Nessie is in fact a ghost which has become trapped in the loch. He said last year he “psychically felt” that the pictures were a hoax.
Mr Edwards said he was proud to be following in a long line of faked pictures of the elusive creature, including the famed 1934 surgeon’s photograph, which purportedly showed Nessie’s head and neck emerging from the loch but was later proved to be a hoax.
He said: “So far as I’m concerned it’s perfectly valid. It’s just a bit of fun.
“I’m 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.”
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