According to this wiki entry all this by the time he's 17.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_HicksHe met Jodie Sparrow, who became his de facto wife, in 1992 at a cattle station in Borroloola where he "worked as a rodeo rider, barman and began studying the Qur'an".
Also he claimed to have met Bin Laden on several occasions, perpetuating the myth that he exists.
And here he conveniently states, how he can't talk about what happened to him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCIBpTLJLEY
Hicks apparantly is from Adelaide in Australia.
Not to be out done the 7/7 script writers also decided they needed a Hicks from Adelaide, Gill Hicks who goes to Europe for adventure at about the same age.
And who also empathise's with muslims.
http://www.independentweekly.com.au/new ... torypage=0
Hardly a common name in Adelaide.
http://www.whitepages.com.au/wp/resSear ... n=Adelaide
I can picture these script writers sitting at their ministry of truth desk, all with access to the same data base on which to base their stories.