“THE only thing you can do in circumstances like that is hold your hands up and apologise.”

Those were the words of Peter Bucklitsch when he sat down to talk exclusively to The Argus at the very pub where he sent the Tweets which turned him into a public hate figure overnight.

He said in his posts the family of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi “died because his parents were greedy for the good life in Europe”, which sparked a mass backlash.

The former Ukip parliamentary candidate was branded as “grotesque” and “evil” by Ukip MP Douglas Carswell.

Mr Bucklitsch, who lives in Crowborough, said he had a choice of letting it blow over and being a figure of hatred forever, or attempt to tell his side of the story.

The former parliamentary candidate agreed to speak to The Argus.

He said: “The only thing you can do in circumstances like that is hold your hands up and apologise.

“So, that’s what I’ve done.

“It was a mistake, pure and simple.

“I got angry because I saw the little boy lying in the sea and it just stayed with me.

“I sent a wrong tweet, it’s as simple as that.”

Grandfather Mr Bucklitsch was sitting in The Catts Inn in Rotherfield, near Crowborough, and welled up on a number of occasions during the interview.

He had attempted to avoid the reaction to his tweets, but did pick up on people telling him to die.

The former Royal Marine reserve and keen sailor has since closed his Twitter account "for good".

He said: “Twitter is too limited a medium for complex thoughts.

“When you try to cram complex thought into 140 characters it will inevitably go wrong."

If he had his time again, Mr Bucklitsch admitted he would never had sent the tweet.

He said: “It would have been more appropriate to go online to insist that proper facilities were provided for the victims of war in those camps to have access to a safe place where they can go and build a new life.

“I just felt so angry that this sort of risk was taken, but I have to say, it was the wrong thing to do because it castigated someone unfairly for something they couldn’t have known about.

“So I’m trying to weasel out from under it. It was a very silly and hurtful thing to do.

“I’d say that I was really quite devastated by the sight of that little boy with his head in the waves.

“I can still see it now, it’s quite an impact.

“I’ve got children and grandchildren, and the idea that anybody could supply a boat for 10 people that’s designed to be a toy to go no more than 100 yards – that’s a serious criminal offence.

“I castigated the father wrongly, because he comes from an area where they don’t have boats and he was probably told with great liability that everything was going to be fine – keep it into the waves and you’ll be absolutely fine – and he had no reason to disbelieve them.

“So, again, I was wrong to castigate that man and his family.

“All in all, it wasn’t a good thing to do.

“The person who’s perfect all the time, I’ve yet to meet.

“It was me dwelling on it, me knowing something about boats – I would never put to sea in a craft like that to go 10km across open water – it’s unbelievable.

“So it was a combination of what I know about boats and the sight of that little boy and his wasted life – all those lives wasted.”

Mr Bucklitsch admitted it was a complex issue, and when asked of the news of David Cameron’s announcement that thousands more refugees would be accepted from Syria, he said: “If that’s his [Aylan Kurdi] legacy, then he probably won’t have died for absolutely nothing.

“But I don’t think it’s worth his life.

“It’s a warzone. They need to be given assistance in leaving the warzone or assistance in making a new life in the country they’ve moved into.

“I know the dangers of the water and having been a Scout master I know the dangers of having to look after children in dangerous circumstances.

“Health and safety, when you’re trying to escape into a new life, tends to go out of the window.”

The Argus spent yesterday tracking down Mr Bucklitsch.

Having visited four of his previous addresses – including a £460,000 detached country home he is understood to have bought in 2010 – residents were appalled by the tweets.

Louisa Rogers, who now owns the home Mr Bucklitsch bought about eight years ago, said: “My reaction is that it’s horrific to hear somebody talk about a person's life like that.

“It’s a really difficult situation and I have children myself, so I really feel for them.

“We should be doing a bit more to help, but it’s difficult to know where to draw the line.”

Former next-door neighbour Nick Butler recalled Mr Bucklitsch, who stood for parliament in Wimbledon in May, criticising his beloved Mazda MX5s.