Adrian Gatton

Category: Hoaxers

  • My Boyfriend the MI5 Hoaxer (Channel 4)

    My Boyfriend the MI5 Hoaxer (Channel 4)

    My Boyfriend the MI5 Hoaxer
    5th February 2010
    First Cut
    on Channel 4

    The tale of a modern-day Svengali. Nineteen-year-old Oxford jewellery shop assistant Leanne McCarthy found herself trapped in a modern nightmare of kidnap, fear and mind control when she met 23-year-old Wayne Gouveia, a sophisticated conman with a track record of duping young women.

    Wayne, who worked in a whisky shop in the same street, swept Leanne off her feet on several lavish dates and they started a relationship. He then set out to cleverly and meticulously convince Leanne he was an MI5 agent, assigned to protect her shop from a ruthless gang of jewel thieves.

    The couple embarked on a year of madness involving late-night stake-outs, car chases, safe-houses, narrow escapes from the gang and, in between, going to flashy hotels and on glamorous trips abroad.

    But Leanne’s doubts about Wayne grew as their adventures got darker and his behaviour became increasingly controlling. As she was driven to the brink of madness, getting away from him became a matter of survival.

    Wayne, it turned out, was one of Britain’s most disturbing hoaxers. In March 2009, he was finally jailed after conning Leanne out of thousands of pounds.

    In this moving and disturbing First Cut film, Leanne revisits the places and relives the memories where her bizarre adventures took place.

    Producer/Director: Adrian Gatton
    Executive Producer: Helen Littleboy

    Watch the programme online at 4oD, click here.

    From some of the reviews …

    “Here is a good movie plot: a pudgy-faced, innocent looking fantasist spins a web of deception. But My Boyfriend the MI5 Hoaxer is true…Wayne Gouveia emerges as a sinister manipulator who brainwashed his victim into paralysed, nightmarish compliance” – – Financial Times

    “Extraordinary, all of it, and fascinating” – Sam Wollaston, Guardian

    “Adrian Gatton’s First Cut film offers a stark warning about the power of sophisticated conmen through the staggering story of Leanne McCarthy.” – Mail on Sunday

    “absorbing” – Observer

    “gripping” – Broadcast

  • Cutting Edge: The 9/11 Faker (Channel 4)

    Cutting Edge: The 9/11 Faker (Channel 4)

    The 9/11 Faker
    11 September 2008
    Cutting Edge
    on Channel 4

    This programme tells the extraordinary story of Tania Head, one of the world’s most audacious fakers.

    In the years following the 9/11 attacks, many stories emerged of triumph, tragedy and heroism. But one story stood out. Tania Head, one of only 19 people at or above the point of impact to survive, who also lost her fiancé in the attacks.

    As Tania Head became President of the World Trade Centre Survivors Network, Tania’s vivid account of miraculous escape and tragic loss convinced everyone – politicians, press, fellow survivors and the families of those who died in the attacks. But Tania wasn’t who she said she was. And on the day of the attacks she wasn’t even in New York; she was thousands of miles away in Spain.

    When she joined the 9/11 Survivors Network, Tania Head impressed her fellow survivors with how well she seemed to be coping. Within months of joining she had helped the network to get official status, secured state funding and asked a trauma expert to lead therapy sessions. She even supported the organisation with her own money and, in 2004, arranged the first survivors’ visit to Ground Zero.

    Barbara Conrad, a former member of the Survivors Network, recalls that, at meetings, “she would walk in and barely make it to her seat because she’d be surrounded, almost by fans”.

    No one questioned Tania, even when there seemed to be small inconsistencies in her version of events. Was the man she lost her fiancé or her husband? Why did a man in a red bandana – known to have saved the lives of many others that day – only appear in later versions of her story?

    But, as her fame grew, so, finally, did the questions. In September 2007, the New York Times published a front page article questioning Tania’s account. Shortly afterwards, she packed her bags and disappeared.

    So who was Tania Head? And how did her deception affect the members of the 9/11 Survivors Network she left behind?

    Speaking to traumatised survivors, the therapist who treated her and the family of the dead hero she claimed saved her life; The 9/11 Faker tells the intriguing story of how Tania Head became 9/11’s most famous living face – and how she was exposed as one of the world’s most notorious fakers.

    The 9/11 Faker is an independent production for Channel 4 by Films of Record.

    Director: James Bluemel
    Producer: Adrian Gatton
    Executive Producer: Helen Littleboy

    “compelling and shocking … this was a great documentary: gripping and mysterious” – The Times
    “absorbing film … a staggering – and commendably unsensational – reflection on delusion, ambition and cynicism” – The Guardian (The Guide)
    “[a] solemn, intelligent documentary …” – The Guardian
    “[a] sad, gripping documentary” – The Daily Mail
    “a truly fascinating programme” – The Daily Star
    “[a] fascinating story of deception and intrigue” – The Daily Record