It was the story that gripped the nation. Graham Hornigold, a successful pastry chef, was separated from his mother at birth. When a woman called Dionne reached out in 2020, claiming to be his long-lost birth mother and wanting to reconnect, he was initially delighted. But things took a turn for the worse when Dionne turned out to be a serial scammer, conning Graham out of tens of thousands of pounds, ruining his life and his relationship. Perhaps most shockingly of all, a DNA test revealed that Dionne was actually Graham's birth mother.
The shocking story was documented in the hit Netflix documentary, Con Mum. Now, Dionne Marie Hanna has been charged with fraud in Singapore, following her alleged victims filing police reports after seeing the documentary. They accuse Dionne of taking their money with the promise that they would be reimbursed through her inheritance from Brunei's royal family - which is a similar narrative to the one she spun to con Graham.
Dionne is charged with five counts of fraud and accused of taking S$200,000 (£115,400) from three men in Singapore and France. Dionne said she was terminally ill, and required the money to set up bank accounts and pay legal fees. She also claimed she was going to donate millions of dollars to a mosque and a Muslim non-profit organisation in Singapore, the court heard.
NewsAsia reported that Dionne appeared before a district court on Saturday via video link, where was seen lying on a hospital bed, accompanied by an investigating officer. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine if she is found guilty.
In the documentary, Graham details how Dionne used her alleged terminal illness to guilt trip him into covering the cost of her lavish lifestyle, which included expensive hotels, fancy restaurants and lots of champagne. She told him she had difficulties withdrawing money from her bank account due to the pandemic. In the end, Dionne's actions left Graham with debt worth £300,000. The Netflix documentary also suggests that Dionne had previously been convicted in the UK for shoplifting and fraud.
In an interview with The Guardian, Graham addressed how searching for love can impact how people fall for scams. 'Yeah, absolutely. That was my downfall. If you don’t receive it when you’re a kid, you have this wound you carry around … Can you honestly tell me the bond between you and your mother you haven’t seen in 45 years and who is dying wouldn’t be stronger than anything else?' He added that Dionne's actions 'goes against everything you think a mother should do – loving and protecting a child. She didn’t do any of that; she effectively destroyed her child’s life. With no remorse.'
Graham hasn't publicly commend on Dionne being charged yet. But in an interview with The Guardian, he revealed his feelings towards Dionne remain unchanged after discovering she is his birth mother. 'I have none,' he said. 'She played upon a need, an unhealed wound which manifested itself into my personality and allowed her in, which it would do anybody. The one person who's supposed to come into your life and be your protector. Those are the ones that are supposed to be there. That's how I had it in my head. And to come in and eliminate everything… all the trust and everything like that, that's a difficult scar.'