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Exactly 10 years ago, a decade, the media made the case of an Australian of Vietnamese origin famous. Its history today is part of that set of surreal stories that were born (and died) on the network. Apparently, the guy, called nothing less What Phuc Dat Bichhe was censored by Facebook due to his name (and his hilarious similarity with “Fuck That Bitch”). Unfortunately, the story in the end was too good to be true. In Brazil it occurred to the resemblance, but for 23 years nobody doubted Judge Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield.
The “aristocrat” of the countryside. The short version: for more than two decades, the judicial system of the state of São Paulo housed a judge who did not exist. La Tarce: José Eduardo Franco Dos Reis, a Brazilian citizen, managed to pass public exams, graduate in Law at the University of São Paulo and exercise as a magistrate under a completely false identity: Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield, a name as extravagant as Anglophile.
The farce began in the 80s, when two reis, determined to reinvent itself, falsified his birth certificate to present himself as a British aristocrat born in Brazil but raised in the United Kingdom. In 1995, already officially converted to a judge, the character consolidated with Press Interviews in which he narrated a fictitious childhood between English castles and noble lineages.
An institutionalized lie. The really fascinating thing about this story is the time that has gone unnoticed by the authorities. The truth came to light in 2024when two Reis (even using Wickfield’s name) went to a government office to renew its identity document.
Although all his legal roles were in the name of his alter ego British, the number of birth registration coincided with that of a Brazilian citizen. The crossing of fingerprints confirmed the suspicion: Judge Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield never existed. It was, in reality, a carefully built and sustained character for more than 20 years by “José”, a man who never left the country and who managed to deceive colleagues, institutions and control organisms without anyone questioning his story … despite the obvious theatricality of his name.
An unlikely explanation. After discovering fraud, two Reis was summoned to declare. Then, the man appeared under his real name for the first time in decades, although he offered an even more delusional defense: he said that Wickfield was His twin brotheradopted in childhood by a couple of British aristocrats.
Nor did he provide evidence or explain the origin of the names, although Media as Folha de S. Paulo They have pointed out the clear and obvious literary inspiration: from Sir Lancelot of The round table Even Mr. Wickfield from David Copperfieldby Charles Dickens. The Prosecutor’s Office formally accused him of ideological falsehood and use of false documents, but so far it has not been able to be located, so it has not been formally notified.
A judicial fortune. During his career, “José” accumulated prestige, power and a juicy pension of more than $ 28,000 per monththe same ones that continued to charge even after his retirement in 2018. However, after the revelation of fraud, the Court of Justice of São Paulo has ordered the immediate suspension of his payments, an amount that only in February It would exceed 166,000 reais.
No doubt, the case has left the stunned Brazilian public opinionnot only because of the magnitude of the deception, but by the dimension of the structural failure of the institutions that allowed a man to live under a literary identity, absurd and completely invented within one of the most monitored powers of the State.
To the small screen. If you want also, the scandal is not only an anecdote of imposture, but a living metaphor of how the appearance, Language and authority can build parallel realities in systems that do not always require rigorous evidence to validate their pillars. The Wickfield-Dos Reis case not only ridicule the judicial system Brazilian, but reveals bureaucratic fragility against the imposted charism and a well -spun narrative (apparently).
Plus: that a judge could be inspired by British literature to create their identity and exercise for decades without being discovered, it is both a structural failure and An institutional tragicomedy worthy of a Dickens novel … or a script that I could surely prepare the Netflix very.
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