Piano Man mystery ends on a bum note

Piano Man

His virtuoso performances captivated his carers and his studied sketches of a grand piano produced in an all-encompassing silence pointed to a tortured genius.

Then, after four months of playing the starring role in a mystery that captivated the world without uttering a word, the enigma known as Piano Man revealed his strangest talent of all - it had all been an act.

Managers at the Little Brook Hospital in Dartford, Kent, where Piano Man had been cared for since May, confirmed yesterday that the gaunt blond-haired man had been discharged after a "marked improvement" in his condition.

A source at the West Kent NHS and Social Care Trust described as "largely correct" reports that Piano Man was actually a German former psychiatric worker whose musical skills are seemingly limited to hitting a single key repeatedly.

Germany confirmed that the unnamed patient, aged 20, had flown back to his home region of Bavaria.

One care worker said the patient, who had refused to speak since he was found in a dripping suit on a Kent beach, astonished staff a week ago by revealing his family history.

The worker told the Daily Mirror: "A nurse asked, 'Are you going to speak to us today?' He simply answered, 'Yes, I think I will'.

"We were stunned. He has been with us for months and we have got nowhere with him. We thought he was going to be with us for ever.

"We found out he used to work with mentally ill patients and seems to have used their characteristics. He had us all fooled though, including two very senior doctors.

"He told us all about his family. His dad owns a farm and he has two sisters. He also said he was gay."

Piano Man gained his nickname after reportedly performing parts of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake for four hours after being discovered. Staff described his playing as "beautiful".

The reality is Piano Man arrived in Britain after losing his job in Paris and had been trying to take his life when he was spotted on the beach.

The Daily Mirror reported he had recently only been capable of repeatedly hitting the same note on a piano. Staff insisted that he was nonetheless able to perform in the manner they described after his discovery.

There are suggestions he may still have a mental condition.

A source said: "Remaining silent for four months in a hospital in Kent is fairly extreme behaviour. As a conman, he is either of little ambition or perhaps himself disturbed."

- INDEPENDENT