When the 60 Minutes crew, including reporter Tara Brown, walked free from a Lebanese prison last month, Australian Adam Whittington was left behind.
Friends and family of the former Australian soldier who organised the botched child-kidnapping operation, say he was "used up and spat out" by Channel Nine.
A group of about 20 relatives and friends of Mr Whittington gathered out the front of Nine's Sydney headquarters on Tuesday, pleading with management to "bring Skippy home" - a reference to a nickname from his army days.
Mr Whittington is languishing in a Beirut prison after the botched child kidnapping attempt in April landed him, the 60 Minutes crew and Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner in jail.
The four-member crew, including reporter Tara Brown, and Ms Faulkner were released and are back in Australia but Whittington remains incarcerated.
"Everybody was anticipating Adam would walk out that courthouse with the Channel Nine crew. I was dumbfounded, devastated," his father, David Whittington, told SBS.
"They went in as a team, they should have come out as a team."
The operation in Beirut has been criticised by rivals in the child recovery industry as amateurish
Security camera footage appearing to show Ms Faulkner's two young children, a boy and a girl, being bundled into a car by several people on a busy street in south Beirut. The children's grandmother has sinced claimed she was hit on the head with a pistol.
David Whittington says the operation failed, partly because of the network's involvement, and he called for Channel Nine to take responsibility for its part in the saga.
"Because of the media involvement, it just got clumsy and it went wrong... Because they just wanted that extra shot. They should have stuck to the plan. And that was - get the children out of Lebanon."
Mr Whittington said he understands some people may have little sympathy for his son, but urged people not to forget the impact his detention has on his grandchildren.
"They keep saying - where's Dad, where's Dad?"
Andrew Buck, a school friend of Whittington, said his mate was a "hero" and "inspiration" and his reputation had been unfairly tarnished.
"He goes into countries to rescue kids from paedophile rings and who have been abducted," Mr Buck said.
Earlier this month Mr Whittington's solicitor Joe Karam provided AAP with two sets of documents which suggest Nine was a key driver of the plot, paying $115,000 to Whittington's company, Child Abduction Recovery International, for his services.
Nine has previously said it feels no obligation to help members of Whittington's CARI team and that Whittington had a contract with Ms Faulkner, not the network.
The Australian government has previously noted Whittington travelled to Lebanon on his UK passport and that the UK was providing consular assistance.
- with AAP.
Share
