Hunt for 'piano man' moves to Bavarian farmhouse

The hunt for the mysterious "piano man" yesterday moved from a Kent psychiatric hospital to a remote Bavarian farmhouse.

Andreas Grassl, 20, whose four-month silence in a British hospital spawned elaborate theories of a troubled musical genius, took refuge in his family home as the reality of his life story began to emerge.

Former friends and neighbours of Grassl in the tiny village of Prosdorf, a remote farming village of only eight houses near the Czech border, described his as a quiet, slightly eccentric young man.

He was the only person from the village to take Abitur (an advanced school examination) - his main subjects were French and biology - and his teachers described him as "likeable" and "intelligent" student who rarely misbehaved in class.

He was a keen internet surfer who apparently spent hours in chat rooms where he was known by his online title "Scatman".

Grassl's father, Josef, insisted yesterday that his son was no trickster and said that he needed time to explain the motives for his extraordinary vanishing act which took him from Paris to the Kent mental hospital from which he was discharged this week.

Mr Grassl, 46, burst into tears as he spoke of his son: " He is back where he belongs with his family. What happened to him is still a mystery. Andreas is not in a fit state to talk about his experiences. I am protecting him from the media because of his state of mind."

Mr Grassl and his wife, Christa, 43, who also have two daughters, reported their son missing in May this year, shortly after the mute "Piano man " was found wandering in a sodden dinner jacket and patent leather shoes on a desolate Kent beach.

They said the last contact they had with him before his disappearance was when he set off to the town of Saarbreucken near France to work for nine months in a home for the handicapped as an alternative to performing compulsory military service in the German armed forces.

The couple said that their son had then told them that he had gone on to Paris to continue his studies.

"We called him around once a month, but in May he stopped answering his mobile phone," Mr Grassl said.

"After that we contacted the German and French police and he was registered as a missing person. But they said that there was nothing that could be done because he was an adult," he added.

Mr Grassl said that he heard of his son for the first time since his disappearance this week, when he was contacted by the German embassy in London.

"We never knew he was in England at all and we were worried stiff," he said.

He added: "Andreas has not explained exactly what happened, but I know he is not a con man. We need to protect him because we fear for his state of mind. He needs time to explain."

Andreas Grassl was being treated at the Little Brook Hospital in the county of Kent, south-eastern England, where he had refused to speak since his admission in May.

Initially it was thought that Grassl was a concert-level pianist, after reports from social workers that he had performed a "beautiful" rendition of Tschaikovsky's Swan Lake.

However, it now seems that his musical ability is confined to repeatedly hitting a single note.

Yesterday it emerged that Andreas Grassl wrote a column for a newspaper in the nearby town of Regensburg, but developed a reputation as something of a loner.

His ex-school friends said he had a "distant look" in his eyes.

"I knew that he had been away for a year" said Stefan Hutter, a neighbour.

"But I wasn't aware that he had been in Paris and then England.

"I met his parents now and again -- of course Prosdorf is very small - but they never talked about Andreas."

Hutter said he had played football with Grassl but had never really got to know him.

"He was always a bit of a loner. He never really made friends with anyone."

Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said: "He was a good pupil but he was a little bit strange. There was a time when he acted oddly."

Franz Loeffler, Prosdorf's mayor said yesterday: "The Grassls are good and decent Christians. If Andreas was the "Piano man," there is probably a very good reason for what happened. I am sure there was no wrong intended."

- THE INDEPENDENT