From proud choirboy to international conman

NEW FILM TELLS EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SMOOTH-TALKING SWINDLER WHO LEFT TRAIL OF DEBT, DECEIT AND HEARTBREAK

- By STEVE BAGNALL Daily Post Reporter

A NEW film charting the rise of a choirboy turned global conman is set for a world premiere in North Wales. Astonishing new revelations show how Kenner Elias Jones who carried the cross and sang at the 1969 Investiture of the then Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle went on to become one of the world's most infamous fraudsters.

The smooth-talking trickster, who spent years posing as a doctor, priest and charity boss, even managed to deceive his own wife for four years while drifting across continents under a string of false identities.

Once seen proudly leading the Investiture procession in his home town, Jones would later leave a trail of deception, debt and heartbreak stretching from Wales to North America, Europe and Africa.

His extraordinary destructive double life is laid bare in a powerful and emotional documentary from Caernarfon-based television production companies Cwmni Da and Awen, who finally tracked him to a care home in Germany.

The film's premiere will be held at Galeri in Caernarfon on Tuesday (December 2) with the event already attracting national interest.

Among the guests of honour will be his ex-wife, former Canadian TV journalist Lee McKenzie, whose appearance in the film has added an extra layer of intrigue to the screening

Also attending will be producer Marc Edwards, who has spent more than three decades following the story of the prolific con artist from Caernarfon who has married three times, arrested several times and served prison sentences in Britain, Canada and the United States for fraud.

In the new year, the story will be turned into a two-part television series, Con Jones: Twyllwr Gorau'r Byd (Con Jones: World's Best Conman), and will be broadcast on consecutive nights on S4C.

Marc Edwards said: "I feel a special attachment to the story because I have followed it for 30 years.