A TAMWORTH science teacher who does not believe in ghosts has broken a 13-year silence to reveal the spooky goings-on he experienced as a night security guard at Drayton Manor.

Richard Kingstone says he and his two colleagues found patrolling the popular theme park at night spine-tinglingly creepy.

But the most terrifying incident of all happened one dark night when Richard and another security guard, both clad in their fluorescent yellow jackets, saw a man in a grey overcoat close to the Pirate Adventure ride.

Richard said: "He was standing with his back to us and we approached him.

"We were around ten to 15 feet away and could hear the sound of heavy breathing when he suddenly turned round and it wasn't a man at all.

"It was this grotesque thing and it leapt at us. I was terrified, I ducked and hit the floor.

"My mate went to hit it with his torch but it went straight through us and disappeared.

"It was a brown, horrible, hairy thing with no face, absolutely petrifying.

"I'm a science teacher and I didn't believe in ghosts – I still don't really – but there were things going on there that were really creepy and certainly things I couldn't explain.

"There is certainly some sort of presence at Drayton but I don't know what it is."

Other spooky experiences which kept the men on their toes included strange mists and the sounds of horses' hooves and running footsteps.

Richard was training as a teacher back in 1999 when he took up the post.

He added: "We used to stand at the top of StormForce 10 [one of the rides] and we would hear footsteps running from the offices down the hill towards the tea shop.

"Then we'd hear more people running beneath us but we could see nothing.

"A more recent security guard has said that he thinks he has heard the sound of horses' hooves in the same place.

"That path is the original road to where Drayton Manor, the Peel family's stately home, once stood.

"The ghost of Robert Peel? I don't know but a lot of people are said to have seen someone on horseback in the area."