Italian faked memory loss to escape his mum-in-law

A TOURIST who claimed he had lost his memory has admitted faking amnesia to escape his nagging mother-in-law.

Salvatore Mannino, 52, pictured, was discovered wandering around St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh on September 20 with no identification and apparently no clue who he was.

It took Police Scotland two weeks to identify the Italian.

When his wife Francesca flew over to see him in hospital, Mr Mannino claimed not to know her. Now back home in Pisa, the father of four is said to have confessed it was all an elaborate lie. ‘I did it to get away from my nagging mother-in-law,’ Mr Mannino reportedly told Italian police.

‘I never lost my memory. I wanted to show my family I was important to them. I wanted to regain my position as a husband and father as I felt my mother-in-law had taken that from me.’

Suspicions about Mr Mannino’s disappearance were raised when Italian police found his computer, which contained searches for ‘how to disappear’ and ‘how to fake memory loss’.

‘Francesca is not happy at all,’ a source close to the family told The Sun. ‘He’s caused a lot of anguish and her mother isn’t even that bad, I’ve heard of worse.’ Italian police said Mr Maninno has been charged with abandoning his family, adding: ‘The waste of time and money hasn’t gone down well.’