An amateur photographer was stunned when he took this spooky snap which appears to show the ghost of a condemned criminal wearing a hangman’s HOOD.
James Pykett captured the eerie image as he shot a range of pictures inside the former prison cells at Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice Museum.
The 25-year-old took the picture when he visited the cells in July but only spotted the strange figure when he uploaded it to Facebook last month.
There has been a court at the Galleries of Justice site since the 14th century and jail cells since 1449.
Prisoners were once hanged on the steps of the prison.
James, who works as a CCTV operator in Nottingham, said seeing the picture made the “hairs on the back of my neck stick up”.
James, from Arnold, Notts., added: “I believed I could see a shadow and when I zoomed in, I was adamant that I could.
“At first I thought it looked like a guard but then on closer inspection the figure appears to be wearing a hood which condemned prisoners wore when they were hanged.
“I started the Facebook page in July and must have taken over 1,000 photos at 14 different locations since then.
“I am interested in the supernatural, and also in the historical side of these sites.
“It all started back a few years ago when spent a night in the cells at the Galleries of Justice.
“That night made me want to answer more questions about the site because it was just really creepy down there, and I have become fascinated with paranormal stuff since then.
“This particular photo was uploaded in July, but it wasn’t until mid-September when I was messing around with pictures, and doing a bit of picture editing, that I tried enlarging the image, and saw that stuff in the photo.
“It’s almost more spooky that I didn’t see the ghost in the photo to start with but that it was there in the background all along.”
In a strange twist, James is due to marry his fiancee Jodi Wallis, a 23-year-old part-time dog groomer, on Halloween.
Faye Rollinson, spokeswoman for the Galleries, said: “Visitors say that when they are walking in the cell area they often have a feeling that they are not alone.
“People say they have seen dark figures there.”
David Cross, who runs the Nottingham Ghost Walk, said: “Nottingham is one of the most haunted places in England due to historic happenings, including the Norman Invasion.”
He said several ghosts are said to frequent the area around Robin Hood’s statue and Lace Market.
