BRITAIN: A suggestion that a mystery man who stunned carers by giving a virtuoso piano performance may be from the Sussex area is being investigated, his social worker said yesterday.
The man has not uttered a word since police picked him up wandering aimlessly near the beach in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, in the early hours of April 7th, dressed in a dripping wet suit and tie.
All efforts to communicate with the shy and agitated man, aged in his 20s or early 30s, have failed, leaving experts baffled as to his identity and where he is from.
Staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham, gave the mystery man a pen and paper in the hope he would write his name or draw his country's flag.
Instead the patient, dubbed the "piano man", drew highly detailed pictures of a grand piano, showing not only the keys but also the intricate inner workings of the instrument. His social worker, Michael Camp, showed him a piano in the hospital chapel and to his amazement the man delivered a stunning, two-hour performance of classical playing. Since then, he has written music but remains mute.
A helpline set up to identify the mystery man has been inundated with calls and a member of the public has telephoned local police and given the name and address of who they believe he may be.
Mr Camp said: "A name has been given of a possible person from the Sussex area. I haven't been able to phone the person that phoned in to check it out."
Mr Camp, who is based at the accident and emergency unit of Medway Maritime Hospital, has investigated several theories as to who the man is and where he is from. Interpreters from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania were brought in to see if he was from Eastern Europe, and possibly an asylum seeker, but no one could get through to the man, who is tall and thin.
He is now being held in a secure mental health unit in north Kent, which has no piano, until a full assessment has been carried out.
A West Kent NHS spokeswoman yesterday said the "piano man" was very vulnerable.
"He's not talking at all," she said. "He's very frightened. He's drawing, but not to communicate."
The case has drawn comparisons with the Oscar-winning 1996 film Shine, which tells the moving story of acclaimed pianist David Helfgott who suffered a nervous breakdown while playing.