Bradford's real-life Batman in battle over 'paunch' claims

Bradford's real-life Batman in battle over 'paunch' claims
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Summary Mr Worby won instant fame as a real-life caped crusader after handing in a wanted criminal.


BRADFORD (Agencies): He won instant fame as a real-life caped crusader after handing in a wanted criminal at a police station in the middle of the night while dressed as Batman, but now Stan Worby is fighting a new battle over claims that he has a paunch.

 

Mr Worby protested that he only looked overweight in CCTV images of the incident because he was wearing a tracksuit under the outfit to keep out the cold.


The pictures, released yesterday, showed a man dressed as Batman dragging 27-year-old Danny Frayne into a city centre police station in Bradford, West Yorkshire.


His identity was a mystery until he was revealed by the Daily Telegraph to be 39-year-old Mr Worby, whose day job is as a Chinese takeaway delivery man rather than a Bruce Wayne-style billionaire philanthropist.


Today, he stepped out from behind the mask to reveal the practical difficulties behind being a superhero - and wearing a Batman costume - in the cold weather.

 

Mr Worby told ITV Daybreak: "Obviously it was done as a joke. He (Frayne) wanted to get straight down. Obviously I wanted my bed. It was half-one in the morning."


He said he was "gobsmacked" by the worldwide coverage of his exploits.


"At the end of the day it was a practical joke, just between me and Daniel."


Yesterday, West Yorkshire Police described how the then-mysterious caped crusader figure had come into the police station with the suspect and announced: "I ve caught this one for you."


Frayne, of Queen Street, Buttershaw, Bradford, had been wanted in connection with a number of alleged offences.
He was later charged with handling stolen goods and fraud-related offences, and will appear before magistrates on Friday.


The mystery was announced by the neighbourhood police team for the Buttershaw area of Bradford on their Facebook page.


They said: "Last week we had a very strange occurrence at the police station when a male wanted for an offence on our area was  escorted  into our helpdesk at Trafalgar House by Batman.


"Batman came into the helpdesk, stated to the staff  I ve caught this one for you  and then promptly vanished into the night to fight crime and the fear of crime in Bradford. The whole bizarre incident was captured on CCTV."

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