Punters were left open mouthed in shock after a man turned up for a New Year’s Eve fancy dress party at a pub dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.
The unnamed man, along with another male companion, arrived at the Chiverton Arms, near Blackwater in Cornwall, draped garbs that closely resembled those worn by the notorious racist hate group, which is also known as the KKK.
A man was seen wearing white sheets, clearly resembling the costume of the infamous far-right group, closely associated with cross burning and racial hatred, in the pub at around 7pm.
On the outfit was the distinguishable blood drop cross, the primary symbol related to the Ku Klux Klan group.
A member of the public, who was in the pub on the night, said they were ‘so angry and annoyed’ to see it. The pubgoer said there were two people dressed in the attire, but just one of them was photographed.
They said: ‘It’s not right and people should not be dressed like that.’
They added that there were staff dressed in fancy dress as well so it appeared to be a themed party but she could not be sure anyone else recognised them as dressing as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
‘We were in shock at first and couldn’t believe it. We spoke to a guy standing near us and he thought it was a game character as some people were dressed as Mario. No one seemed to take much notice and they did seem to know people and staff,’ they added.
A man was seen wearing white sheets, clearly resembling the costume of the infamous far-right group
The pub asked the individual wearing the costume to remove it.
A spokesperson for the pub said: ‘I’m the landlord and was made aware that one person was dressed like that and the costume was removed. We put up a fancy dress 80s theme for the new year and we can’t tell people what to wear.
‘We did though tell the person to remove it once we were aware. No complaints were made on the evening for us to deal with.’
Devon and Cornwall Police said they had not received any reports about the incident.
Previous similar instances across the country have been treated as hate crimes.
In 2018, police in Northern Ireland received reports that a gang dressed as the Ku Klux Klan were pictured dressed outside an Islamic Centre in County Down.
On the outfit was the distinguishable blood drop cross, the primary symbol related to the Ku Klux Klan group.
The incident was reported to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the force treated it as a hate crime.
In October a man dressed up as Manchester arena bomber Salman Abedi was taken to court.
David Wootton posted pictures of himself wearing an Arabic-style headdress, with the slogan ‘I love Ariana Grande’ on his T-shirt, and carrying a rucksack with ‘Boom’ and ‘TNT’ written on the front.
The disturbing Halloween costume which was captioned ‘bet I get kicked out of the party’ caused fury on social media, with his friends slamming the stunt.
The 40-year-old was arrested and pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message online.
