Wildlife officers believe the killing of an experienced fisherman in Far North Queensland was the first time two crocodiles had ever been recorded predating a human.

Andrew Heard vanished while fishing from his low-riding fibreglass dinghy near Hinchinbrook Island, north of Townsville, and his remains were later found inside two crocodiles, one of them measuring a monster 4.8 metres.

In the days after the 68-year-old had failed to make it back to his wife, who was waiting for him on their yacht, wildlife officers killed a giant male croc and a 2.8 metre female.

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Queensland's Department of Environment and Science have now detailed the search for the crocodiles in a just-released inquest report, and how the fatal 2021 attack happened.

The male crocodile that attacked and killed Heard, their report said, was more than twice as long as his 2.2-metre boat, and almost as wide.

The 4.8 metre beast was described as "a large dominant male" that led a predominantly oceanic existence and specialised in larger prey, such as turtles and dugongs.

"Crocodiles of this size are serious predators capable of attacking and consuming humans," the report noted.

Officers found serious damage inflicted on the keen angler's dinghy, which rode low in the water and had a working deck just 10cm above the surface.

"The damage to the dinghy, including bite puncture marks, and extensive hull damage, was consistent with an attack by a large crocodile," the report stated.

"Based on the evidence it would appear that the deceased was initially attacked and killed by the larger male crocodile while fishing in his boat."

The female likely came in once Heard was killed, it added.

READ MORE: 'Go time': The croc encounter that left a veteran tour guide stunned

In the report, a department officer concluded "to my knowledge this is the first time that two crocodiles have been recorded predating a human anywhere."

The attack was likely triggered by Heard disturbing the water in some form while he fished, the report said.

However it happened, he stood no chance.

The survival rate of humans attacked by four-metre-plus crocodiles is "estimated to be zero", officials said in the report.

"Estuarine crocodiles instinctively respond to any movement at the water's surface by approaching and biting or attacking the source," the report continued.

"Once estuarine crocodiles have engaged in a predatory attack they will continue until the prey stops moving, unless they determine that the prey is too large.

"Given the very large size of the crocodile, the deceased was well within the suitable prey size range, and the small size of the boat provided the deceased with next to no protection from the attack."

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Heard was described as an experienced yachtsman and fisherman.

He had sailed to the Hinchinbrook channel with his wife to fish every year over the last decade, so he knew the waters well and was wary of the crocodile threat.

On the morning of February 11, Heard had fished from his dinghy and returned to the yacht for lunch with his wife.

Around 3pm he pushed off again, telling his wife he'd be back in one-hour.

When 4pm passed, his wife tried to contact him by radio but got no response.

She raised the alarm, and early the next morning Heard's upturned boat was found.

A large piece of the hull was missing, and tooth or puncture marks were visible on what remained of the boat.

Searchers discovered a broken fishing rod and other equipment at the attack site.

Heard's wife told the coroner she had seen the crocodile responsible for killing her husband on another sailing trip, years earlier.

But department officials said there was no way to be certain of that.

READ MORE: Hungry croc rams into family's small boat in remote NT waters

'Masters of camouflage'

Since being hunted to the brink of extinction in 1970s, crocodile populations have bounced back in Queensland, and especially Northern Territory.

There are an estimated 20,000-30,000 crocodiles in Queensland and 100,000 in the NT, home to the world's largest wild crocodile population.

Legendary top end fishing guide Dave Donald, known locally as "Barra Dave", said utmost respect must be paid to crocodiles.

One slip up, he said, can be fatal.

"It's not the crocodiles that's the problem," Donald told 9news.com.au.

"It's human beings who are the problem.

"If a croc ever becomes a problem and starts chasing my fish … I will leave that spot alone for a month."

Caution is key, he said.

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Think of Australia's $2.2 trillion economy. Now flip a coin.

According to a leading economist, that is the 50 per cent risk the Australian economy falls into a damaging recession at some time in the next year, following 12 punishing rate hikes which have so far failed to substantially rein in inflation.

Millions of households are this morning trying to work out how they will afford their mortgage repayments after the Reserve Bank's decision to again lift rates yesterday.

READ MORE: Queen secretly sent staffer to Australia over concerns about 'gap year'

Following Tuesday's hike, borrowers with a $500,000 home loan must find an extra $76 each month, and their monthly repayments have increased by $1100 in just over a year.

The World Bank has declared the global economy is in a precarious state, and AMP's deputy chief economist Diana Mousina warns a confluence of local factors has left Australia staring down the barrel at a recession.

"There are already increasing signs that the economy is weakening," she said, amid a gloomy backdrop that has the official cash rate sitting at 4.1 per cent, compared to just 0.1 per cent in April last year.

Despite RBA forecasts, Mousina said the rocketing interest rates means it is becoming much harder for the economy to remain on an "even keel".

She said the series of hikes "runs the real risk of tipping the economy into a recession, which we assign a 50 per cent risk to in the next 12 months".

READ MORE: Is Australia headed for a recession in 2023? Possibly

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Retail sales have slowed, the unemployment rate is rising and building construction has hit turbulence.

The decision to lift rates yesterday appears to have been driven by the uptick in the April consumer inflation data which lifted to 6.8 per cent, from 6.3 per cent.

Mousina said rising interest rates will hurt those households already hurting most.

"The impact of rate hikes is very unequal," she said.

"All of the burden from higher interest rates (is) being placed on indebted Australian households," she said, which amounts to around one in three families.

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It would also put further upward pressure on rents, she said.

Data released this week showed Australia's "misery index" is almost as high as it was during the global financial crisis, due to climbing inflation and interest rates.

The RBA has signalled more rises might be needed to dial in inflation.

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Queen Elizabeth II was so concerned about media coverage of Prince Harry's Australian "gap year" she secretly sent a royal staffer to stay down the road from him, the Duke of Sussex has claimed.

The revelation is one of several links to Australia contained in the royal's 55-page witness statement released on Tuesday as part of his lawsuit against the publisher of British tabloid the Daily Mirror.

The 38-year-old, who on Monday took the stand in a 132-year royal first to accuse Mirror Group Newspapers of phone hacking and other unlawful snooping, described his "situation" Down Under as "awful" and accused the group of paying to have him watched in the Hunter Valley.

READ MORE: Some of the key quotes from Prince Harry's tabloid court trial witness statement

The claims, most of which were addressed in Harry's memoir Spare, are just a handful of the accusations the prince made in a statement stretching to more than 25,000 words released as he faced cross-examination on Tuesday.

Of the 33 tabloid articles in question, three related to his time in Australia and a fourth referenced the former captain's early departure from a tour of Afghanistan due to an Australian magazine breaking an embargo, placing a "target on my head".

The first, published in the Mirror in September 2003, claimed Harry was considering leaving Australia because of press intrusion, and quoted a palace spokesperson "expressing concern and disappointment" about his treatment.

"I do recall that the Palace issued a statement because the situation in Australia was awful for me and there was supposed to be an agreement that once I had done the press call on arrival, I would be left to get on with my gap year in private," he wrote, referencing time he spent as a Jackaroo on Tooloombilla Station in south-west Queensland.

"I was a teenager, and this made it clear that there was nowhere in the world, not even the Australian outback, where I wouldn't be hounded by the press or paparazzi."

Harry claimed MGN was using "unlawful techniques" to snoop on him, referencing two payments — one of £100 referencing a new hairstyle and the other of £450 titled "Prince Harry watch Hunter Valley (Ellis)" — he said were made by the publisher about that time.

"These suggest to me that MGN were using unlawful techniques to gather information about me, with the second payment seeming to me like the Defendant was paying to have me watched," he said.

The duke also questioned how the paper was able to report that he was inside "watching videos", given the purpose of staying inside was to avoid the "suffocating" surveillance from camera crews outside.

"I was only in Australia with a couple of UK bodyguards, so this is the kind of thing I would have moaned about over the phone and in voicemails," he wrote.

The second article was published in November of the same year and detailed plans to spend Christmas in the UK before flying to South America to play polo and taking up a "proper job" before joining the military. 

His "guess" was that £100 paid to a freelance journalist for the article "was for unlawfully obtained private information about me".

The third Australia-linked article forming part of the case was published in December 2003 after Harry had finished up on the outback station and taken a trip to the Sunshine Coast with friends.

"I remember this day so clearly, we were staying in a house and, after visiting Steve Irwin's crocodile zoo in the morning, we had gone out on to the beach in front of the house in the afternoon," he wrote. 

"It was a public beach, but not busy or popular so I'm unclear how anyone had known we were there, to be in the right place at the right time to take photographs. I wasn't aware of anyone taking photographs at the time.

"I only learnt recently that the Queen had asked one of her assistant private secretaries to fly out to Noosa and take a house down the road from where I was staying, without me knowing. 

"She was concerned about the extent of the coverage of my trip and wanted someone I knew to be nearby, in case I needed support."

Mirror Group Newspapers denies or hasn't admitted any of Harry's claims.

On Tuesday, the publisher's attorney, Andrew Green, told Harry in the courtroom that a spokesperson at the Palace had told reporters that Harry had been in Noosa, days before the article was published in various outlets.

More broadly, he asked Harry to identify what evidence he had of phone hacking in specific articles.

Harry repeatedly said he'd have to ask that question of the journalist who wrote it and continually insisted the manner in which information had been obtained was highly or incredibly suspicious.

On Monday, Green said there was "simply no evidence capable of supporting the finding that the Duke of Sussex was hacked, let alone on a habitual basis".

Green's cross-examination of Harry was expected to continue throughout Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday morning AEST) and into Wednesday.

– Reported with Associated Press and CNN

An Australian man accused of going on a drunken, naked rampage in Indonesia has been released from jail.

Bodhi Risby-Jones was facing five years in an Indonesian prison but he is currently making arrangements to return to Queensland.

The 23-year-old said he felt "relieved" and the first thing he plans to do he arrives home in Australia is "give my family a big hug".

"They've been very supportive, my family have been amazing," he said.

Risby-Jones was arrested in April by locals on a small surfing island off the coast of Sumatra.

He was accused of assaulting a local fisherman while naked and drunk in an incident which caused outrage among locals.

His message to other Australians is to "respect the laws" after he spent the past six weeks in jail.

"Look what I did, I made a fool of myself and it was shown publicly worldwide," he said.

Risby-Jones and his lawyers managed to reach a compensation deal with the victim worth $25,000.

"I'd like to thank the prosecutors for helping me," he said.

"I'd like to thank the police and everyone who helped us finalise and finish the deal so I could go home".

The prosecutor in Jakarta was satisfied with the compensation.

Risby-Jones said the experience will not discourage him from visiting Indonesia in the future.

"I do plan to come back here, I think the people are very nice and the surf's really good," he said.

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As Prince Harry makes history as the first royal to be cross-examined in court since the 19th century, his full 55-page witness statement has been released.

In it, the Duke of Sussex goes into detail about his relationship with the United Kingdom tabloid press and the reason he is suing the publishers of the Daily Mirror, which he accuses of he accuses of phone hacking and other unlawful snooping.

It's the first of his several lawsuits against the media to go to a full trial and Mirror Group Newspapers is contesting the claims.

READ MORE: 'Hostility since I was born': Prince Harry gives historic evidence in court

Here are some of the key quotes from Harry's written witness statement released by the court:

'Playboy prince', 'thicko', 'cheat'

"In my experience as a member of the royal family, each of us gets cast into a specific role by the tabloid press. You start off as a blank canvas while they work out what kind of person you are and what kind of problems and temptations you might have.

"They then start to edge you towards playing the role or roles that suit them best and which sells as many newspapers as possible, especially if you are the 'spare' to the 'heir'. You're then either the 'playboy prince', the 'failure', the 'drop out' or, in my case, the 'thicko', the 'cheat', the 'underage drinker', the 'irresponsible drug taker', the list goes on.

"As a teenager and in my early twenties, I ended up feeling as though I was playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes that they wanted to pin on me mainly because I thought that, if they are printing this rubbish about me and people were believing it, I may as well 'do the crime', so to speak.

"It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a 'damaged' young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers. Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile."

Tabloids 'wanted me to be single'

"Whilst they would, of course, report on my successes in life, it seemed to me that they took far greater pleasure in knocking me down, time and time again. This extended to my relationships."

"I always felt as if the tabloids wanted me to be single, as I was much more interesting to them and sold more newspapers.

"Whenever I got into a relationship, they were very keen to report the details but would then, very quickly, seek to try and break it up by putting as much strain on it and creating as much distrust as humanly possible, as I shall go into in more detail later in this statement.

"This twisted objective is still pursued to this day even though I'm now married."

Harry's relationships and the press

"I genuinely feel that in every relationship that I've ever had — be that with friends, girlfriends, with family or with the army, there's always been a third party involved, namely the tabloid press.

"Having seen me grow up from a baby (being born into this 'contractual relationship' without any choice) and scrutinised my every move, the tabloids have known the challenges and mental health struggles that I have had to deal with throughout my childhood and adult life and for them to then play on that and use it to their own advantage, I think is, well, criminal."

Anger at former Daily Mirror editor 

"The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother's private and sensitive messages (in the same way as they have me) and then having given her a 'nightmare time' three months prior to her death in Paris, makes me feel physically sick and even more determined to hold those responsible, including Mr Morgan, accountable for their vile and entirely unjustified behaviour."

'Did you not get my voicemail?'

"I remember on multiple occasions hearing a voicemail for the first time that wasn't 'new', but I don't remember thinking that it was particularly unusual – I would simply put it down to perhaps a technical glitch, as mobile phones were still relatively new back then, or even just having too many drinks the night before (and having forgotten that I'd listened to it).

"I wouldn't go into my voicemail unless the little envelope symbol flashed up on my phone signalling to me that I had a new message. Sometimes this symbol would vanish before I had a chance to listen to the voicemail.

"I don't know how long after they'd been listened to that the symbol vanished, presumably straight away. I also distinctly remember people saying to me 'did you not get my voicemail?' on both a personal and a work-related level.

"I was like, "no", and sometimes I would go back into my voicemail to look for it but still couldn't find it."

Diana was 'fearful', not 'paranoid'

"It's only now, realising what the defendant's journalists were doing, and how they were getting their information, that I can see how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia.

"I've always heard people refer to my mother as paranoid, but she wasn't. She was fearful of what was actually happening to her and now I know that I was the same."

Concerns about coverage on royals' trip to Australia

"This article [BEACH BUM HARRY], which appeared on page 19 of the Daily Mirror, written by Jane Kerr and accompanied by various photographs of me in the sea, reports that after leaving the ranch where I'd undertaken work on my gap year, I had gone to the beach resort of Noosa with some friends.

"I remember this day so clearly, we were staying in a house and, after visiting Steve Irwin's crocodile zoo in the morning, we had gone out on to the beach in front of the house in the afternoon.

"It was a public beach, but not busy or popular so I'm unclear how anyone had known we were there, to be in the right place at the right time to take photographs. I wasn't aware of anyone taking photographs at the time.

"I only learnt recently that the Queen had asked one of her assistant private secretaries to fly out to Noosa and take a house down the road from where I was staying, without me knowing.

"She was concerned about the extent of the coverage of my trip and wanted someone I knew to be nearby, in case I needed support."

The supposed impact on British democracy

"I feel that I need to make sure that this unlawful behaviour is exposed, because obviously I don't want anybody else going through the same thing that I've been going through on a personal level.

"But also, on a national level as, at the moment, our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government — both of which I believe are at rock bottom.

"Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo."

'How much more blood will stain their typing fingers'

"Finding out about this level of cover up is what makes me want to see my MGN claim through to the end, so people can really understand what happened. 

"The fact that it was not just the journalists who were carrying out the unlawful activity, but also those in power who were turning a blind eye to it so as to ensure that it would continue unabated, and who then tried to cover it up when the game was up is appalling. 

"The fact they're all ganging up to protect each other, like they first did after Leveson [a wide-ranging inquiry into the UK press], is the most disturbing part of it all, especially as they're the mothership of online trolling. Trolls react and mobilise to stories they create. 

"People have died as a result, and people will continue to kill themselves by suicide when they can't see any other way out. How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness."

Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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National’s Tama Potaka likes to keep physically and mentally agile.

Prince Harry has arrived at a London court to testify against a tabloid publisher he accuses of phone hacking and other unlawful snooping.

Harry alleges that journalists at the Daily Mirror and its sister papers used unlawful techniques on an "industrial scale" to get scoops.

Publisher Mirror Group Newspapers is contesting the claims. Harry faces cross-examination by the company’s lawyer when he enters the witness box at the High Court in London today.

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The 38-year-old son of King Charles III will be the first British royal since the 19th century to face questioning in a court. An ancestor, the future King Edward VII, appeared as a witness in a trial over a gambling scandal in 1891.

Harry has made a mission of holding the UK press to account for what he sees as its hounding of him and his family.

Setting out the prince’s case in court on Monday, his lawyer, David Sherborne, said that from Harry's childhood, British newspapers used hacking and subterfuge to mine snippets of information that could be turned into front-page scoops.

He said stories about Harry were big sellers for the newspapers, and some 2500 articles had covered all facets of his life during the time period of the case — 1996 to 2011 — from injuries at school to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine to ups and downs with girlfriends.

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“Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds” for the tabloids, the lawyer said.

Mirror Group's attorney, Andrew Green, said there was “simply no evidence capable of supporting the finding that the Duke of Sussex was hacked, let alone on a habitual basis".

Green said he plans to question Harry for a day and a half.

Harry has been expected in court Monday for the opening of the hacking case, the first of his several lawsuits against the media to go to a full trial.

He was absent because he’d taken a flight Sunday from Los Angeles after the birthday of his two-year-old daughter Lilibet, Sherborne said — to the evident chagrin of the judge, Timothy Fancourt.

“I’m a little surprised,” said Fancourt, noting he had directed Harry to be prepared to testify.

Harry’s fury at the UK press — and sometimes at his own royal relatives for what he sees as their collusion with the media — runs through his memoir, Spare, and interviews conducted by Oprah Winfrey and others.

He has blamed paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and said harassment and intrusion by the UK press, including allegedly racist articles, led him and his wife, Meghan, to flee to the US in 2020 and leave royal life behind.

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A man named Dave and a dog named Thor held the key.

An ex-Australian Olympian has pleaded guilty to harassing his former partner in Melbourne last year.

Gary Neiwand, 56, appeared before Broadmeadows Magistrates Court today, where he pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.

The court heard over a period of two days in July, Neiwand bombarded his victim with dozens of phone calls, emails and messages from social media accounts.

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The defence told the court Neiwand attempted to make contact because he was worried about the victim's mental health after breaking up with the woman because he had been seeing someone else.

His victim, who remains anonymous, told 9News that it was three days of "absolute hell".

"It's not fair," the victim said.

"I knew he had a past, but I thought the better of it. I thought he was a changed man and it wouldn't happen to me."

The 56-year-old is a four-time track cycling Olympian who won medals in three of the four Games he participated in.

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He also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals.

Neiwand was previously sentenced to 18 months for stalking a former girlfriend and four other people in 2006. He has also previously breached a court order.

Six years later, he was convicted and given a two-year good behaviour bond after admitting he flashed two women. He was then spared jail time.

The court heard the father of two lives with his parents and has a good relationship with his kids. 

The former Olympian also faced a stalking charge but that was dropped.

Neiwand will reappear for sentencing in September.

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He shares how he is overcoming challenges and finding solace in his passion.