Tony Anthony

Tony Anthony (born Andonis Andreou Athanasiou; 30 July 1971, name changed by deed poll in 1975 to Andonis Andrew Anthony, but known since childhood as Tony ) is a British Christian evangelist.

He recounted that in 1989 he was arrested for burglary in Cyprus and was sentenced to three years imprisonment in the Central Jail of Nicosia, where his Buddhist upbringing did not give him much strength to endure the harsh conditions.

Over six months, he was visited every week by an Irish missionary, Michael Wright, and converted to Christianity.

They developed a friendship which continued after Anthony's release.

He was sentenced again in 2001 to 15 months in prison in the United Kingdom for perverting the course of justice and other charges.

By his own version of events, his car had hit a female motorcyclist at night, killing her, but he had not stayed at the scene and later denied it to the police.

The person killed was Elizabeth Bracewell, sister to footballer Paul Bracewell.

Anthony's wife, Sara, received a sentence of 120 hours of community service for her role in the cover-up.

When Anthony was jailed (as when he married) he used a false date of birth.

Anthony set up Avanti Ministries in 2003 to support his evangelistic work (avanti is the Italian for 'go').

He became prominent following the 2004 publication of his autobiography, Taming The Tiger, in which he claimed to have been a violent criminal before converting to Christianity.

The book was well received by the Christian community, and Anthony began an international ministry as an evangelist.

The organisation received charitable status on 3 June 2004.

In 2004, Authentic Media (then part of Christian publishers Send the Light and currently owned by the Australian company Koorong) published Anthony's autobiography, Taming The Tiger.

"Questions were asked about the authenticity of Taming the Tiger ever since it was first published in 2004. Critics were quick to point out that it reads like a work of fiction..."

The book won the 2005 Christian Booksellers Convention award, was translated into 25 languages, and 1.5 million copies were distributed.

Taming The Tiger brought Anthony to the attention of Christians worldwide, who were enthralled by the conversion of such a violent criminal.

He travelled internationally to tell his story; video interviews were broadcast in Canada on 100 Huntley Street in 2005 and 2011,

and in the Netherlands by Evangelische Omroep.

Users of a martial arts website also began to doubt Anthony's story, starting in 2007.

Mike Hancock is credited with initiating the events that finally exposed Anthony.

Anthony was also the keynote speaker at the Global Day of Prayer event in London in 2010.

He was a member of the Leigh Road Baptist Church.

Concerns began to be expressed about Anthony's claims to have been a Kung Fu champion and violent enforcer.

Christian journalist Gavin Drake writes:

Hancock was appointed as a director of Avanti Ministries in December 2010, but received evasive answers when he asked for proof of Anthony's claims.

Having failed to convince the other directors of the need to verify Anthony's story, he resigned in January 2012.

Hancock then joined with another former director of Avanti Ministries, Geoff Elliott, who had similar concerns, Anglican church leader Carl Chambers, and prison chaplain David Buick, and together they sought to uncover the truth about Anthony.

Chambers created a website documenting his research into Anthony's claims.

Additional members of the group were Tony Pancaldi, Aaron Peterson and Jon Mason.

Collectively, they became known as the Research Group.

In October 2012, the Research Group presented a detailed complaint to the Evangelical Alliance, an umbrella organisation of which Avanti Ministries was a member.

Following discussions with the Alliance, Avanti Ministries agreed to set up an independent investigation conducted by a panel comprising three senior members of the Evangelical Alliance council.

However, an independent investigation in 2013 concluded that large sections of the book are false.

Tony Anthony was born in London.

According to his books, his father is Italian, and his mother is Chinese, and he spent part of his childhood with relatives in Canton, China.

He claimed to have been trained in kung fu by his grandfather,

and that he won three Kung Fu world championships after returning to London, before working as a bodyguard and turning to violence and crime, including murder, after his fiancée died in a car accident.

A joint press release issued by Avanti Ministries and the Evangelical Alliance on 12 July 2013 advised:

The panel produced its report on 26 June 2013 and concluded, based on the evidence submitted to it, that large sections of the book Taming the Tiger, and associated materials, which claim to tell the true story of Tony Anthony’s life, do not do so.