THE man behind the mysterious Charlbury ‘panther’ has revealed the
true story of the beast which has prompted a number of recent big cat
sightings.
Art collectors Philip Reid and David El Kabir have spoken for the
first time about why they decided to put the black puma-like sculpture
in their back garden eight years ago.
The beast has puzzled the public, with train commuters reporting seeing a big cat in the fields near the railway line.
The most recent sighting was by Isabel Oakeshott, political editor of
The Sunday Times, who tweeted: “I just saw something very like a black
panther in woods near Charlbury.”
But the creature is not a big cat. It’s a steel sculpture in a garden in Church Lane.
The Priory house and garden is owned by a trust led by Dr El Kabir, 87.
He is one of six people who live in the house.
The gardens are regularly opened to the public.
Dr El Kabir, 87, said: “It’s funny that it’s causing this commotion. People shouldn’t be scared of it.”
Dr Reid, 49, added: “It’s quite fun. We wanted to put it in an area that would catch people’s eyes.”
Charlbury resident Darren Taylor, 41, said: “You can see it as you
pull out of the station. It’s quite big and there’s quite deep foliage
around there.
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The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper column-inches than any other cryptozoological subject. There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. Curated by Carl Marshall and Olivia McCarthy
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