Scots mother tells of ghost terror.
A Scots mother today described how her family watched in terror as their 24-year-old girl lodger was dragged across the living-room by an invisible force. Blood spurted from cuts and slashees which suddenly appeared on her face and throat. Mrs Avril Perkins (30) of Livingston, West Lothian, said: “This happened right in front of me and my three young sons.”
The lodger, Lorraine Ronaldson, today showed multiple scars on her body which, she said, had been caused by at least six similar frenzied attacks. She was also bruised and had had her eyes blackened as the result of unexplained beatings when no one was near her.
Livingston Development Corporation has now arranged to rehouse Mrs Perkins and her two younger sons, Ronald (9) and Colin (6). The older boy, Steven (11) has gone meantime to live with his father in Manchester. Mrs Perkins said: “Steven just couldn’t cope with what is happening any more.”
The family moved into the three-storey terraced house with five bedrooms in the Dedridge area of Livingston in February last year. Mrs Perkins said: “The happenings started about 16 months ago. At first I would make the beds, then come home from shopping to find the bedclothes heaped on the floor. But it has steadily got worse. A man’s voice now screams out obscenities, saying he is going to attack me and that we will all die horribly.”
Television sets and record collections have been smashed and gas taps are constantly turned on without being lit. On one occasion the family say they saw their Doberman dog, Heidi, apparently flying in the living-room until it smashed against the wall. Graffiti appears on walls and mirrors and messages written in a slimy substance appear on the windows.
Mrs Perkins said: “Sometimes we have been so terrified we have all run out of the house and stayed the night with my mother. Several times the bedclothes were pulled off us and about a dozen sheets have been ripped by knives.”
Two exorcism services have been held in the house, one by a local minister and the other by an ordained medium from Glasgow. Prof. Archie Roy, an expert in the paranormal from Glasgow University, has also paid two visits. Broadcaster and author on the paranormal, the Rev. Stewart Lamont, said: “This sounds very much like the standard range of poltergeist phenomena. It could be collective hallucination in this case, but that is unlikely. It could be fraud but that would be very difficult.”
Aberdeen Evening Express, 15th August 1987.