Sorry but I don't buy this conspiracy theory. If journalistic mischief was involved, there would have to be a return on their cash investment in the form of an exclusive headline 'scoop' whereas the story was actually first revealed by the BBC News.
The BBC obtains the first editions of the next morning's papers. They do a preview on Newsnight. This actually works in the favour of newspapers because it provides a taster for the paper buying public. Therefore, if the story is interesting enough people will look out for it at their local shops the next morning. A good story publicised the evening before, when it's too late for rival papers to do anything about it, will guarantee increased sales the following day. This boy's adventure was the front page story in The Sun which was lying on the doormat of our neighbour's apartment as I left on the way to work. That was when it suddenly struck me there was something just a little far fetched about the whole thing. I'm a journalist, albeit a redundant one at present, with a 30 year newspaper career behind me. I worked with someone who gave up working for the tabloids because of the methods they employed to generate news. Believe me, this is exactly the type of activity they engage in to get a story.