‘Forest boy’ finally exposed as hoaxer after being identified as Dutch runaway

He is now facing the threat of criminal charges for a deception that has cost
the German taxpayer thousands of pounds.

“He has admitted that he is a fraud,” Thomas Neuendorf of the Berlin
Police told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

“We confronted the young man known as “Ray” with this new
information this morning (Friday) and he said: ‘OK, you got me – I am Robin
and I made the whole story up.”

The youth may now be prosecuted for fraud and wasting police time. “He
has been looked after since September receiving money, clothes, housing and
education and all because he told us lies. There may well be a case against
him for fraud and time wasting.”

The youth made headlines across the world after walking into Berlin City Hall
on September 5 and appealing for help.

Speaking in English, with a slight accent, he told authorities: “I don’t
know who I am, I’m all alone in the world. Please help me.”

He claimed he knew only that his name was Ray, that he was 17-years-old and
that he had been living wild with his father Ryan since his mother, Doreen,
was killed in a car crash five years earlier.

He said he had buried his father in a shallow grave after he died in a fall
and then followed a compass north to Berlin to seek help.

The tale earned him the sobriquet of “waldjunge” and sparked months
of investigation by a team of detectives in Berlin.

They called in psychologists to determine if he was suffering from some sort
of amnesia or delusion, brought in linguistic experts in a bid to determine
his accent and carried out DNA analysis to establish his origins.

Interpol was asked to match him to any known missing persons around the world,
but no lines of inquiry bore fruit.

After ten months of being cared for by Berlin social services who housed him
and sent him to a local school, at an estimated cost of 5,000 pounds a month
to the German taxpayer, police finally took the decision to make a last
appeal for information.

Now the true story of the youth has emerged.

Mr Van Helsum left his home town of Hengelo near the German border on
September 2 and travelled with a friend to Berlin by rail.

A missing person’s notice was published by Dutch police later that month.

A schoolfriend told a Dutch broadcaster: “He had personal problems, and
so probably he found a way to begin a new life.”

Others that knew him in the town were shocked at the huge deception.

“He was a normal kid who worked hard and had a great sense of humour,”
said Dennis Bonnes, the Director of Voicedata, a telecommunications company
based in Hengelo where Mr Van Helsum was an intern for six months ending
February 2011.

“The whole office was shocked when we heard he was the forest boy. It’s a
very weird story and we can’t imagine why he did it.”

At the college where Mr Van Helsum attended until July last year, there was a
similar reaction. “We are very surprised to hear the fate of our former
student,” said Else Van Riel, a member of staff at ROC Van Twente
Vocational college in Hengelo, where the youth studied Media and
Communication.

“He wasn’t a good student, rarely came to class and therefore didn’t get
his final certificate,” she added.

It is understood that the youth’s father died earlier this year and that his
step-mother has now spoken to him on the telephone.

Reports on Dutch media said he had a two-year-old son with an ex-girlfriend
who was appealing for him to return home and be a proper father.

“He says he doesn’t want to return home,” said Mr Neuendorf of the
Berlin police. “He is an adult and this is Europe so he can stay in
Berlin if he wants but he will no longer be the responsibility of the state,”
he said. “At last, we can close the book on this case.”

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