Family haunted by ‘ghost’.
Lights switch on and off – doors bang – and spooky apparitions ‘terrify’ mum.
Exclusive by Neil Graham.
A young mum is being terrified by a ghost that flings open doors and flushes the loo when no-one else is in her council-owned house. First the ghost started banging doors. Then it “walked” up the stairs and into a bedroom when Joanne Draper was in the bath. At one stage it flung open the serving hatch, as Joanne’s disbelieving parents tried to persuade her that ghosts did not exist.
Now Joanne (18) of Cutler Crescent, Stacksteads, has had her house blessed after her baby boy repeatedly got out of his bedroom – despite being unable to reach the door handle. Unemployed Joanne said: “It’s terrifying. I’ve heard people walking about upstairs and lights going on and off – but no-one is ever there. My boyfriend Chico is afraid to come round after he saw an old woman’s face in the doorway. I haven’t slept for days. One night I was on the couch and I woke up and saw a shape in the room.”
Joanne, who now spends nights downstairs – with the television on – moved into the house last year. She said: “Neighbours told me that the last residents moved out because of ghosts but I didn’t believe them. I’m like a prisoner in my living room when it goes dark.”
Joanne says she has no idea what causes the disturbances. She added: “My parents tried to tell me it was the wind – until the serving hatch flew open.”
Rossendale Free Press, 4th December 1992.
Loo-flushing ghost gives mum willies.
Scared Joanne has her toilet exorcised.
By Gordon Hughes.
Young mum Joanne Draper has had her loo exorcised – in a bid to flush out a cheeky ghost. The ghoul, nicknamed Willie, flushes the toilet in the middle of the night, clicks the bathroom light on and off and flings open locked windows. Joanne, 18, is so scared by the strange goings-on that she uses a neighbour’s loo when she wants to spend a penny. “I daren’t go upstairs for fear of bumping into the ghost,” she said yesterday. “I even moved the bed into the living room to escape.” Now she is keeping her fingers – and legs – crossed that the exorcism, performed by a passing evangelist, will work.
The first time Joanne heard the phantom flusher she and her 18 month-old son Stephen were alone in the council house in Stackstead, near Rochdale, Manchester. Joanne was so scared that she asked her boyfriend to spend the following night with her – and the loo mysteriously flushed again. Joanne said: “We both heard it so I know I’m not going mad.”
And local vicar the Rev. Edward Ashworth, of nearby Holy Trinity Parish Church, claims to have heard reports of similar problems in the area. “They must all be taken seriously,” he said.
The previous owners of the house, which backs on to a cemetery, warned Joanne about “strange noises.” She said: “I didn’t believe them at first. But I’m now certain there are ghosts out there.”
Daily Mirror, 10th December 1992.
Special breakfast for mum and spook.
Haunted house mum Joanne Draper is to appear on Channel Four’s Big Breakfast Show. She will set out within days for an all-expenses paid trip to London where she will rub shoulders with stars on the hit show, which is headed by husband-and-wife duo Paula Yates and Bob Geldof. Joanne (18), of Cutler Crescent, Stacksteads, hit the Free Press headlines earlier this month with our story about her spooky visitor. She told of “her” ghost flushing the toilet and noisily walking around upstairs – even letting her baby son out of his bedroom. The festive haunting has attracted nationwide newspaper and magazine attention in recent weeks.
Rossendale Free Press, 24th December 1992.