The mystery man who for eight years convinced police he was an upper class Englishman who had

lost his memory has been exposed as a Romanian fraudster. After he walked into a Toronto hospital
claiming he had been mugged and was suffering amnesia, Canadian police knew him only as Mr Nobody.
British police were asked for help after linguistics experts identified the man's accent as certainly the
Queen's English as spoken by a one-time public schoolboy. But, finally, faced with evidence gathered by
journalists, Mr Nobody has admitted he was born Ciprian Skeid in Timisoara, Romania, 36 years ago.
Piecing together his life, the US edition of GQ magazine reports in its June issue that Skeid's first
disappearance came as a young man when working as a cook in Germany and was asked to send money
home. 'He flew into a rage and his family never heard from him again,' a friend told the magazine. 'His
mother went into a decline and died of her suffering in 2000.'
From Germany, Skeid moved to Paris on a temporary visa. There, a male friend supported him -
Skeid said work was against his principles. Told to find a job, he left for London on a French passport in the
name of George Lecuit, later reported stolen. He worked as a masseur at a gay bathhouse.
How Skeid arrived in Toronto - where he said all he knew was that he was born in 1975 and
christened Philip Staufen - is still a mystery. But amid a worldwide outpouring of sympathy, he was granted
Canadian social assistance and housed by individual Good Samaritans touched by his hard-luck story.
Later, he married the pretty daughter of a successful lawyer and moved to Portugal.
Claiming his father, who died in 2002, was a violent drunk, Skeid said: "I came from Romania, a
place I loathe. My family had nothing. My mother didn't have the courage to leave the crazy man who
ruined her life. My life could justify acts much worse than those attributed to me.”

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN

THE TEXT. USE YOUR OWN WORDS.
1. Why did the Canadian police contact the British police?
2. When did Skeid cut ties with his family?
3. Why did Skeid criticize his mother?
ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE
PRECISE WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT, OR USE YOUR OWN WORDS
4. The media called Skeid Mr. Nobody
5. He worked as a masseur in France

USE OF ENGLISH
6. Give a synonym of mugged
7. Find in the text one synonym for hate
8. Find in the text the word which has the following definition: “to provide money
for a person to live on” (verb)
9. Find in the text one synonym for “feeling moved” (adj.)
10. Fill in the gap with a correct form of the verb in brackets: “When I got
home it was very quiet, everybody…………………………….(go) to bed.
11. Fill in the gap with a correct modal verb: “I have called her twice but
I…………………………….to talk to her
12. Find the odd word out: convincing/touching/outpouring/thrilling
13. Give a question for the underlined words: They found her watch