For the past couple of years, the people of Bexhill-on-Sea, in the UK, have had to put up with the antics of an “evil” paraglider who likes nothing more than to intimidate them by flying super low over their heads and shouting all kinds of obscenities.
Last week, Sussex Police and the Civil Aviation Authority launched a joint investigation into the behavior of the so-called “Bexhill Birdman”, who many have described as a social nuisance. Police have received more than a dozen complaints regarding his behavior in the past two years, and have urged the public to come forth with any information they may have on this issue. The paragliding man is suspected of acting hostile to members of the public, flying really low over their heads to intimidate them and shouting insults and obscenities from the air. Some locals have become so wary of him that they avoid going up Galley Hill, where he usually takes off from.
Photo: JACLOU-DL/Pixabay
“He is evil,” a man by the name of Richard Porter told The Independent. “His language foul and obscene. We fell foul of him on more than one occasion. My wife will no longer go up there in case he is there.”
“He flies really low, he’s a social nuisance,” local Samantha Small added.
“People come here to enjoy a quiet retirement coastal area and they want it as such. They don’t want, particularly, people hang-gliding,” one local councilor said. “We’ve got enough seagulls around here without humans doing it as well.”
As word of the police investigation spread in Bexhill-on-Sea, 54-year-old local carpenter Paul Satchell unmasked himself as the infamous “Bexhill Birdman”, adding that he is the victim of a smear campaign from people who have a problem with his paragliding.
“The same people who made these false allegations against me are the same ones who are picking on me for flying. Maybe they don’t have a life of their own,” Satchell told The Telegraph. “They will never stop me because I have done nothing wrong. I’m a free-flying spirit and I live to fly and fly to live.”
Despite denying that he is the nuisance some locals make him out to be, Paul Satchell did admit that he can get aggressive if people pisses him off.
The police investigation is ongoing.
