Desperate plea as ‘spirits’ invade home again.
‘Close encounters’ bring new wave of terror to mum
‘Haunted’ family’s plea to council
A terror stricken mother of two is pleading to be moved from a council house which was exorcised 12 years ago after a spate of sinister events. Elaine Dawson says she is being scared out of her mind by evil influences in the house at Lindsey Avenue, Great Cornard – the same one from which tenants were moved in 1971 after alleged poltergeist attacks. Now bones which she believes could be human have been unearthed in the back garden.
Since moving in last month with son Jason (3) and seven month old baby Lisa she claims that her family and friends have been subjected to a barrage of frightening experiences. She complains of strange noises, moving shadows and a feeling of being constantly watched. One night she lay screaming with terror as a strange shadow appeared to loom out from the wall. A curtain rail flew across a room and a friend was woken abruptly in the middle of the night when he was hit in the back by a toy cat. And Jason changed from being happy and loving to aggressive and bad tempered, and became frightened to go upstairs.
“I was so worried about him that I’ve had him put in a foster home till I can get another house,” she said. “Since being away from here he has returned to normal.” She went on: “It’s as if there is always someone in the house, watching us. It seems to be centred on the small bedroom. I’m really frightened to be alone there with the baby .My boyfriend and friends stay sometimes but they can’t always be there .I’m sleeping downstairs now. I won’t go upstairs if I can help it.”
Part of the garden was dug up after one of her friends claimed to have been overwhelmed by a sense of evil and death when she stood on a certain spot. Pieces of bone were uncovered – but it will probably never be known for sure whether or not they are human. Pathologist at West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St. Edmunds, Dr Frank Harris, examined them and decided they were at least 70 years old. Because of their age there would be no police investigation even if the bones were human. Dr Harris said that because of the age and state of the bones it was difficult to tell if they were animal or human, and it was unlikely that any further test would be carried out.
Elaine Dawson with baby Lisa outside her ‘haunted’ house in Lindsey Avenue, Great Cornard.
In 1971 tenants Doris and Cyril Brooks and their family were rehoused afte rmonths of alleged supernatural attacks. Two exorcisms were carried out by the Rev Ian Davidson, then Vicar of Great Cornard.
Suffolk and Essex Free Press, 21st July 1983. (no 1970s editions yet, see 4th March 1971)