A MAN dressed as a Star Wars character carrying a gun was stopped by police during as charity walk after being mistaken for a ninja.

Event organiser Jan Evans has apologised for any offence caused by the “innocent mistake” of carrying the gun through East Lancashire the day after the Paris terrorism attacks.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mr Evans, who was taking part in the walk to raise much-needed funds to improve the life of his his daughter, Neave, who has four-limb cerebral palsy, said that without the gun completing the costume they would have had to cancel the event.

Mr Evans, with Stephen Ball, who was dressed as Commander Gree – a clone trooper from Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, completed a 14-mile walk from the Accrington Tesco to Burnley Tesco.

He said the gun was essential as without it, the 99th Garrison, a Star Wars fan group, would not have let Mr Ball take part in the walk because of its strict rules.

Mr Evans said: “A police officer pulled us over at Waterfoot and said they had reports of someone walking with a firearm. He said he had to call it in to stop us getting stopped further along our journey.

“In hindsight, we should have called the police in advance to tell them what we were doing, but we only found out about the Paris attacks in the morning and it was too late to do anything.

“We raised a fantastic amount of money and the joy that Stephen gave to all the kids that had their picture taken with him was immeasurable. If we all gave up doing things like this because we’re scared of terrorism, then they have won.”

The walk, which has so far raised £1,763, adds to the £3,000 already generated for an £80,000 project to convert the ground floor of Mr Evans’ home to make it fully accessible for four-year-old Neave Talking about the event, which took about eight hours, Mr Evans said: “It was great. We got lots of waves, lots of children stopping us for pictures with Stephen and one old lady passed us on the bus, got off and waited for us at the stop just so she could give us some money.

“The weather was terrible and it was hard-going, but we did it.”

A police spokeswoman confirmed they did attend Waterfoot on Saturday to reports of a ninja carrying a gun.

Visit goldengiving.com/fundraising/clonewalk to sponsor the pair.