THE mystery of the “Piano Man” took a sudden twist yesterday after he spoke for the first time in four months, checked out of hospital and flew home to Germany.

The story of the terrified, unknown mute captured imaginations around the world when he was found soaking wet and with all the labels cut out of his expensive-looking suit on an isolated Kent beach in the middle of the night. All attempts to persuade him to speak proved in vain but he was apparently blessed with a virtuoso’s musical touch and reportedly treated hospital staff to astonishing classical piano recitals.

Leads poured in and he was wrongly identified as, among others, a French busker, a Norwegian student, a Canadian eccentric and a Czech concert pianist.

His plight carried echoes of the Australian pianist David Helfgott, whose battles with mental illness were portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Shine. There were also parallels with the British film Ladies in Lavender, in which a violin virtuoso is washed up on the Cornish coast and nursed back to health by two sisters played by Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith.

But it now appears that the Piano Man could barely play the instrument and that the closest dramatic precedent for his behaviour was the feigned madness of the central characters in Hamlet and I, Claudius.

The German Foreign Ministry confirmed yesterday that a 20-year-old German national from Bavaria had been discharged from a British hospital and flown home. Staff at the German Embassy in London, who provided him with temporary travel documents, spoke to him on the telephone yesterday and confirmed that he had arrived safely.

The Piano Man was picked up by police in the Isle of Sheppey on April 7 and taken to a hospital in Gillingham, Kent. He was transferred to a specialist mental health unit at Little Brook Hospital in Dartford.

He did not speak for 19 weeks and the clearest clue to his identity appeared to be his fondness for the piano, which was first discovered after he drew a detailed sketch of one.

However, he gave up his elaborate charade on Friday, telling medical staff that he was German, gay and had been attempting suicide when he was found by police.

An insider at the hospital was quoted as saying: “A nurse went into his room last Friday and said, ‘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. He claims he was found by police as he was trying to commit suicide. He was obviously in a distressed state and didn’t talk to police. Then it just went on from there. He had us all fooled though. We found out he used to work with mentally ill patients and seems to have used their characteristics.

“He told us all about his family in Germany. His dad owns a farm and he has two sisters. He also said he was gay. He drew a picture of a piano because that was the first thing that came into his head, he said.

“When he played the piano in the hospital, he didn’t play it that well — contrary to all the reports — but just kept tapping one key continuously. He admitted that he couldn’t play the piano that well at all.”

In May, Ramanah Venkiah, the manager of the unit where the Piano Man was recovering, said: “He has been playing the piano to a very high quality for up to four hours at a time and staff say it is a real pleasure to hear it.”

Last night a spokesman for West Kent NHS and Social Care Trust said: “He could play the piano.” But he refused to comment on whether Chopsticks rather than Chopin marked the limit of his talent.

The spokesman added: “The patient dubbed Piano Man is no longer in our care. He has been discharged after a marked improvement in his condition.”

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