By Tim Binnall
A British mayoral candidate hopes that voters can overlook an unfortunate past incident wherein he was busted terrifying people while dressed as a creepy clown. Running for office in the city of Doncaster, Richie Vallance reportedly expressed regret over his brief stint as a haunting harlequin nearly a decade ago. The misguided moment occurred in April of 2016 when Vallance was roaming the streets in a clown mask and stumbled upon a pair of hospital workers who were understandably deeply unnerved by the encounter.
Looking back on the incident, which led to Vallance being convicted of causing public distress and banned from dressing as a clown, the mayoral candidate mused "I'm not proud of it, but I have changed a lot since then." As for what motivated his odd behavior back in 2016, he claimed that the costume was a form of "protest" against gangs that had been bullying him. "I wasn't meant to be out scaring anybody," he said, "I put on a mask to hide from the abuse and slander I was getting." Time will tell whether or not voters will buy his reasoning for the strange incident, though Vallance may have handed his opponents the perfect fodder for their campaigns when he declared "at the end of the day, a clown mayor is not what we want."