Haunted from our home.
A couple claim they have been driven out of their home by an evil poltergeist. They said the sadistic spirit left their kitten half dead in a pool of blood and terrorised their baby. Now council chiefs have offered to rehouse 18-year-old Stephen Corrie and his girlfriend Dawn Thompson, 17. They fled their home in Botcherby Avenue, Carlisle, after an alleged three-month reign of terror by the ghost, which manifests itself to Dawn as a man in a blue shirt.
They say the apparition was responsible for a string of nightmare events including attacking their kitten with a rolling pin, banging on the walls and ceilings, and frightening their eight-month-old son, Stephen. Local vicars blessed the house – but the couple packed their bags and fled at the end of April. Stephen said: “I thought I was going to end up in the mental hospital. We walked the streets some nights because we were so scared. We’d only been in the house a few weeks when I came downstairs after hearing banging and found the kitten lying half dead in the kitchen. The rolling pin was covered in blood and scratches. After that the cat was attacked every night and the rolling pin would have been moved from the drawer the next morning.”
A police spokesman said: “We have interviewed the couple and they answered all our questions honestly. Something in that house has frightened them.”
Two local clergymen have backed the couple and Carlisle housing committee chairman Beth Furneaux said: “We believe the couple’s fears are genuine. They are afraid to return to that house.”
Daily Record, 21st September 1989.
A ghost beat up our cat.
A terrified young couple are being rehoused after claiming that their pet kitten was battered by an evil ghost. Stephen Corrie, 18, and girlfriend Dawn Thompson, 17, say life in their Carlisle council home was a nightmare. There were spooky bangs, ornaments were moved, and a phone they didn’t have kept ringing. “We found the cat with a rolling pin nearby,” said Stephen yesterday. “It was a real house of horror.”
Daily Mirror, 21st September 1989.
‘Ghost’ house to be re-let.
A council house from which a couple fled in fear of ghosts is to be re-let and offered to people at the top of the housing waiting list, it was announced yesterday. Mr Stephen Corrie, 18, his girlfriend Miss Dawn Thompson, 17, and their baby son left their house in Botcherby avenue, Carlisle, after claiming they were being terrorised by evil spirits. The couple were last night in council hostel accommodation waiting to be re-housed.
Carlisle City Council housing committee chairwoman Ms Beth Furneax, said: “We will re-let the house just as we would normally and the next people on the waiting list will be offered the house. No decision has been made as to whether or not the house was haunted. All that mattered was that the couple were in a lot of distress. They actually left the house and then refused to return. We were convinced they were genuinely upset by the house and so we have taken steps to help.”
The pair moved into the two-bedroomed terrace house after their son, Stephen, was born eight months ago. The young family fled their house after claiming spirits had moved objects, terrorised their baby, and battered their pet kitten with a rolling pin. Mr Corrie, an unemployed tyre fitter, said: “We’d only been in the house a few weeks when we heard banging and I found the kitten lying half dead in the kitchen.” He said the ghost also terrified their baby, opened cuboards and doors, turned the stereo on, moved ornaments and appeared to Miss Thompson in the shape of a man in a blue shirt.
Newcastle Journal, 22nd September 1989.