Who the Hell is Hamish? · The Australian

The Intern

·41 min·3 clips

Bec saw Hamish watching her son's 16-year-old girlfriend at the beach and felt repulsed by his predatory gaze.

1. Who the Hell is Hamish? episode 'The Intern' follows Hamish McLaren's predatory relationship with Jane, a 16-year-old girl who was dating Bec Rosen's son Jack. 2. Narrator Greg Bearup presents the episode through interviews with Bec Rosen, Jack Rosen, and Jane's grandparents Lorraine and Peter Cross, all of whom were damaged by Hamish's actions across several years. 3. The episode's core thesis is that Hamish's targeting of Jane was not opportunistic but deliberate: he groomed her as both a trophy and a way to access her grandparents' money through manufactured trust. 4. Bec Rosen describes Hamish first calling Jane 'the dwarf' and flicking her with a tea towel at 16, which she found inappropriate; when she complained, Hamish dismissed her and her sons sided with him. 5. Bec describes a specific beach moment where she saw Hamish crouched on his haunches watching Jane walk to the water, feeling 'repulsed' and sensing something predatory, but being told by Hamish and her sons that she was 'crazy.' 6. The pattern of gaslighting extended to couples' therapy: Bec and Hamish spent months seeing a professor of psychology in Sydney's Glebe, and the therapist concluded Hamish was 'a man who genuinely loves you,' giving Hamish further ammunition to dismiss Bec's concerns. 7. Hamish used Jane's academic ambition — she was school captain and attended youth leadership courses — to pitch a business internship in Sydney and, later, a trip to New York with a supposed Princeton scholarship. 8. Jane's grandparents Lorraine and Peter Cross are introduced through their connection to Glenn Pickard; they live on Smith's Lake near Blueys Beach in a house built partly to accommodate their granddaughter Harriet, who had cerebral palsy and died at age 14. 9. Peter Cross suffered a brain injury when a truck rolled on him in a 2004 mining accident; he had a substantial compensation payout pending, which Hamish targeted, telling Peter he had a 'real good investment' after meeting on a kayaking trip. 10. Lorraine describes investing an initial $150,000 and progressively more, including selling their house in Lynn Crescent, ultimately giving Hamish $1.7 million in total while he reported the fund as growing to $10 million. 11. When Hamish announced the Princeton trip at a family dinner, Bec's stomach 'dropped'; she extracted a promise he would not meet Jane overseas, which he broke within days, admitting he 'saw them for a minute at LA airport.' 12. Bec came home to find 17-year-old Jane sitting on the end of her bed telling her to 'stop interfering in my relationship with Hamish,' while Jack sat beside Jane and backed her up — Bec describes this as one of the most surreal moments of the entire period. 13. After Hamish and Jack's relationship deteriorated, Hamish's car leases using Bec's forged signature emerged; she and her father visited the Porsche dealership, where a manager said they had worked 'on a basis of trust with customers we know.' 14. Jack Rosen, now studying science at Newcastle University, was interviewed in his share house and describes Hamish as having been a genuine positive influence in some ways — teaching him to surf, do triathlons, and avoid drugs — before the betrayal. 15. Jack confirms that Hamish had an affair with Jane for at least eight months and describes the worst element as Hamish turning Jack and his brothers against Bec, leaving Jack to tell her 'you need to stop saying stuff like that' while the affair was happening. 16. After the relationship ended, Jack reached out to Jane for closure; she confirmed the affair and described Hamish 'grooming her, buying her gifts, taking her out to nice dinners' and flying her to the US. 17. Jane, described by her grandmother as now working in a clothes shop up the coast, texted Greg Bearup saying 'I firmly believe he will pay for all he has done.' The Princeton scholarship never materialised. 18. The episode's tone shifts between raw, unsteady emotional testimony from Bec and Jack and the measured, almost pastoral descriptions of Lorraine and Peter's lake house and the life they built — emphasising what Hamish took from them. 19. The episode is best suited for listeners already following the series who want to understand the personal and family dimensions of Hamish's fraud beyond the financial losses. 20. The closing revelation — that a $20 million fraud brief was sent to NSW and federal police in 2007 and ignored — will be most impactful for listeners who have heard all prior episodes and understand the full span of Hamish's crimes.

As heard by us

Hamish McLaren's conduct grows more troubling, while the interviews keep the story grounded.

Bearup treats Hamish McLaren as more than a con artist, tracing how he moved into Bec Rosen's household and drew teenage Jane into his orbit. The unease comes through in the memories rather than a tidy recap, which keeps the episode bleak without turning it into spectacle.

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Why you'd press play

A grooming-by-charisma story told through the people who noticed the cracks first.

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