COMMUNITY DAVE:

"I would have people coming every weekend, so I just can't get out of society anymore. I've hidden too many years and I've built relationships and those relationships have continued to expand," he added.

For three decades, Lidstone lived in the woods along the Merrimack River in the town of Canterbury. He was a logger by trade and grew his own food in the woods.

On 15 July, Lidstone was jailed on a civil contempt sanction and was told he would be released if he agreed to leave the cabin, following a property dispute that started in 2016. The landowner, 86-year-old Leonard Giles, wanted Lidstone to leave the property.

A fire destroyed Lidstone's cabin hours after he defended himself during a court hearing last Wednesday. Lidstone was released Thursday from jail after a judge ruled that he would have less incentive to return to "this particular place in the woods", now that his cabin had been destroyed.

Nevertheless, Lidstone is not grieving the loss of his life in isolation, saying: "Maybe the things I've been trying to avoid are the things that I really need in life ... I grew up never being hugged or kissed, or any close contact."

"I've had somebody ask me once, about my wife: 'Did you really love her?' And the question kind of shocked me for a second. I ... I've never loved anybody in my life. And I shocked myself because I hadn't realized that. And that's why I was a hermit. Now I can see love being expressed that I never had before."

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