Vicar called in as ghost scares family.
By Liam Tully.
Ghostly goings-on in the attic have terrified a Birmingham family. Sheila Deakin said the nightmare on Edgbaston Road, Balsall Heath, started five weeks ago after they moved into the Copec Housing Association-owned property. Since then, the whole family had experienced: A foul smell; Heavy breathing noises from the attic; Creaking sounds as if someone walked across the ceiling; Rattling beds; A plant pot which flew off a table and smashed.
Mr Deakin claimed the ghost even touched her. “I was sitting down at the table when something touched me on the back of the neck,” she said. “I can tell you I never moved so fast in all my life. I was petrified – we just can’t live like this. It’s too frightening.”
Mrs Deakin said her family were so scared they had closed off the attic after a neighbour told them a man died there about 40 years ago when the houses were privately owned. Mrs Deakin said her 12-year-old daughter Charmaine was on medication because she was so frightened, and Solo the dog went wild with his hair on end when the ghostly noises started. She said her husband, Robert, had managed to record some of the breathing noises.
A local vicar hadblessed the house, but Mrs Deakin said: “We just can’t take this any more. We’re terrified and have started sleeping downstairs.”
A Copec spokesman said: “We understand that the Deakin family has been in touch with a local vicar and we will make contact with him to seek his advice. We are taking the matter seriously and are looking into it thoroughly. We have checked our files and do not have any record of complaints of ghosts in th ehouse from the two previous tenants who spent about eight years in the property.”
Birmingham Mail, 13th March 1991.