May 24, 2007 | Sex & Society

Fake amnesiac has gay porn past

He's been a cook, an amnesiac, a welfare recipient, and a porn model. And now GQ Magazine has exposed him as one big, fat fraud.

In 1999, Ciprian Skeid came to international attention when he showed up in a Toronto hospital after an apparent mugging. With a broken nose and no identification, he claimed he didn't know who he was. Staff at the hospital diagnosed him with post-concussive global amnesia. The media dubbed him Mr. Nobody.

However, in an interesting twist to the case, gay porn editor Sean Spence claimed that Skeid was actually porn model Georges Lecuit, who had last worked in Britain as a "masseur" in a bathhouse and appeared in the gay porn film "Crush. " In July 2001, Spence provided photographs of Georges Lecuit to the Toronto Police Department. The pictures bore a striking similarity to Skeid. 

Above Right: George Lecuit. Left: Ciprian Skeid.

After travelling back and forth across Canada, and several name changes, Skeid disappeared with his new Canadian wife. They were recently found in Portugal, where journalists presented him with his original birth certificate. He finally came clean, admitting that he is a 36-year-old Romanian trying to escape a life he hated.

"I came from Romania, a place I loathe," Mr. Skeid said. "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.

"I'd rather be a fake nobody than the real me."

There is no word yet on any charges Skeid may face -- but Romania isn't looking so bad right now.

• Hard luck Mr Nobody becomes Mr Somebody [Globe & Mail]
• Mister nobody [CBC.ca]