Mischievous ghost of Christmas past.
Joe Riley with a spine-chilling tale about a poltergeist.
Only now can the story be told. Because only now has the poltergeist which brought terror to a group of Formby teenagers been laid to rest. For the past three weeks, 19-year-old Phill Orme’s life has been hell. It’s a spine-chilling saga which has led to him quitting his flat and seeking the help of the church. today, as his life is getting back to normal, the man who helped him most, the Rev. Robert Brunswick, an adviser on exorcism to the diocese of Liverpool, told me: “I am convinced that in Phillip’s case it was an example of the paranormal. What he experienced were the classic symptoms of a poltergeist.”
The phenomenon that was to wreck Phill Orme’s Christmas first manifested itself on the evening of Thursday, December 20. His girlfriend, Jane Wilding, was washing her hands in the bathroom of his flat when she sensed a presence: “In the mirror, I saw something go behind me. It was like a shadow.” She told Phillip, who treated it as a joke. But soon, he too, wasn’t laughing. For a little later Jane went to light the gas oven – to find it already lit. “But there was no heat when I opened the door, as if it had only just happened.”
Both Jane and Phill told their parents and a few friends. Most of them were sceptical. But two nights later, as he was about to go to sleep, Phill heard a crashing sound: “It was as if somebody had dropped a tray of cutlery. It happened every time I shut my eyes.” No sleep. It was the first of several such nights… “I would have crawled out of the window into the garden if I could have done, but it’s an old Victorian house and the windows are nailed down.” On Christmas Eve Phill and his family went out for a meal. But later he had invited some friends around for a drink. What happened then was witnessed by several people. I happened to be one of them.
As we all inspected the bathroom (I didn’t actually see anything), Phill shot out of the room, white as a sheet. “Whatever it was touched me. It was like an ice-cold hand touching the base of my spine,” he told us. The poltergeist was obviously becoming more active, for that same night: A glass of Dubonnet and lemonade, which was near the fire in the lounge, disappeared of its own accord. Drinks of Pernod and blackcurrant separated out into layers, as if someone had placed a sheet of paper between them. And even the same drink, mixed using a different bottle of Pernod brought the same results. After I left, lights went on and off of their own accord – a phenomenon I personally witnessed when visiting the flat again after Christmas. And the poltergeist again manifested itself by the bathroom door. “If you can imagine a snowman with mittens on, you would be getting near a description,” said Phill.
Phill and a friend of his were terrified. At 6 a.m. on Christmas morning they set off to a local Catholic church, where an early mass was taking place. The priest blessed them, but Phill would never again spend a night in his flat. But to his amazement, when he moved into his parents home nearby, the phenomenon followed him – and gave him his worst experience. Both he and a friend heard tremendous growling noises, “like an amplified version of a lion, but rougher and deeper, yet like nothing I had heard before, even on a horror film.”
At the time, they had been trying to forget the troubles of the past few days. They were watching a Jasper Carrot video. But the Orme’s dog, Kim, went berserk. It wouldn’t go near Phill and it kept sniffing at the lounge door. By now Phill’s parents were beginning to take the matter seriously, although they had heard nothing themselves from an adjoining bedroom. However, a few days later, when Phill was driving the family car, he slammed the brakes on as they drew near his flat. “It was there in the road in the front of the car,” he said. His mum did the rest of the driving.
When it became clear that things weren’t going to improve, the father of a friend put him in touch with the Rev. Brunswick, who is vicar of St Luke’s Church, Southport. Matters had reached such a pitch that Phill, Jane, and another girl who had experienced weird happenings, had all been reduced to tears at one time or another. They were glad to visit the Rev. Brunswick together. But as Phill tried to enter the sitting room there, he felt a presence blocking his way. “It was as if a wall had been put up in the open doorway. We had to push him inside,” says Jane.
The Rev. Brunswick soon came to the conclusion that it was a poltergeist. He takes up the story: “Over the past 18 years I have dealt with hundreds of such cases. I come across them perhaps once or twice a month. The church takes such matters very seriously. We don’t turn people away and tell them to put more water in their whisky. Poltergeists (literally “noisy ghosts,” derived from the German) attach themselves to people, says the Rev. Brunswick, as against “normal” ghosts which are associated with places. “Poltergeists are non-malevolent,” says Robert Brunswick. “They act like a mischievous child, but it is an area of experience which no-one can pronounce on categorically. Phillip was obviously very distraught and had the classic symptoms.”
The Rev. Brunswick decided to bless the hapless trio and he gave them a crucifix from the church. Phill and his friends spent an hour with him. “He told me if there was any more trouble to hold the crucifix and say: “In the name of the Lord Jesus, be gone.” The Rev. Brunswick decided against performing an actual exorcism: “The advice from the bishop on these matters is to treat them as low-key, and only to use exorcism as a last resort.” And today, with the help he has so far received, it looks as though Phill Orme has seen and heard the last of his ghostly companion. “Things seem to be getting back to normal, but I have decided to give up my flat because of the associations it has with it,” says Phill. So hopefully, a happy ending. But Phill and his friends won’t forget Christmas 1984 in a hurry.
Liverpool Echo, 16th January 1985.