Maybe this particular 20 year old is smarter than you were at that age. Some people have to learn fast. According to him he knew that an untrue story was being published by the Sun and so he told them so. They published anyway, labelling him a drug addict (according to his parents who seem to have been a little lose with the truth anyway, according to him), and if he is smart enough he knows that his name will come out at some point in time, and that his life will be poured over - then exist on the internet probably long after he dies in (hopefully) old age. Too bloody right you'd get a lawyer, if you had any smarts about you.
How smart you were, or weren't, at 20 is no measure of how smart any other 20 year old is. There are a lot of smart 20 years olds. There are some really stupid 40 year olds.
I do wonder when people are going to actually get the fact that speculation is horrendously damaging to people, and the fallout of that speculation hurts many more than the immediate victims. All he needed to do was be clever enough to walk into a solicitors office anyway - with a story this big, reputable firms would be falling over themselves to represent him. Money is not the only currency in the world - exposure, in the right circumstances, is worth a lot to legal firms.