Mum’s ghost terror.
Priest called to drive away ‘evil spirits’.
Report by Richard McComb.
Sinister spirits that have terrorized a Medway mother since childhood have been driven from her home in a special ceremony conducted by a priest. It is the fourth time the Rev. Gilbert Spencer has tackled poltergeists within a quarter mile of Rachel Jolley’s flat in Fort Pitt Street, Chatham. Rachel (22) says she has been terrified at night by the cries of a baby, noises in her bathroom and a deep voice whispering “help me.”
A favourite picture of her two-year-old son Rikki has been thrown to the floor repeatedly. Mr Spencer, rector of St John’s Church in Railway Street, told the Chatham Standard: “A poltergeist is symptomatic of a presence of something nasty. I am convinced there is somethin gin it. It is an area people should not mess about with.”
Rachel has been driven to hysterics by the nightime happenings. She said: “You sometimes feel that something has walked through you, just momentarily. It’s like death.”
Mr Spencer blessed each room of Rachel’s flat and asked her to join him in prayer. “It is really to say, in God’s name,” whatever is evil, get out!” said Mr Spencer. He said the poltergeists he had encountered in Chatham always attached themselves to young women such as Rachel. And the young mum is no stranger to evil goings-on. She said a violent ghost brought terror to the lives of her family in Speedwell Avenue, Weedswood. It banged a wardrobe door and eventually shattered its glass. The furniture then became shrouded in a glow. All the family were present when a priest and medium exorcised the spirit – all except Rachel, then aged 13, who believes she has been pursued ever since. “It’s like it is following me,” she said.
Mr Spencer said poltergeists were quite common in Chatham. Police once called him to a home where a cupboard door had been wrenched from its hinges and an electric fire thrown across the room. “There is a kind of unseen energy,” said Mr Spencer. “These are some of the things we cannot explain.” Mr Spencer said someone once came to him claiming to be possessed by the Devil, but the pirest said he was not allowed to exorcise souls. And he warned of the dangers that could be unleashed by occult practices. “Black magic and Ouija boards open up to a force of evil.” he said.
Chatham Standard, 14th August 1990.