Terrified mum quits ‘haunted’ council house.
By Felicity Newson.
Terrified mum Christine McLean claims her bid to give her two young children a new life have been wrecked by a poltergeist. Today Christine told how she moved into the nightmare council house only three weeks ago. Now she has sought sanctuary at a friend’s home following a series of inexplicable happenings. And she says she is too scared to take her children back to her own house in Spondon, Derby.
“There is no way I will return to that house after what i have seen and heard there,” declared Miss McLean (26) today. “I would rather take my two children on the street than spend another night in that place.”
Now a solicitor has pledged to back her fight to be re-housed. He has already written to Derby City Council’s housing department urging officials to allow the family to return to their original home in Sinfin, which they were forced to quit after a vandal attack earlier this year. Housing chiefs have agreed to consider their case and do what they can to help.
Miss McLean and her two children, Kareene (two) and nine month old Mark moved into 10 Mount Avenue last month. “During the first weeks I kept waking up and hearing eerie footsteps upstairs,” she claimed. “Then I began hearing strange noises. It seemed like furniture was being scraped across the kitchen floor. The last straw came when I heard the noise again and looked through to the kitchen and saw a stool move from one side of the room to the other on its own. I just screamed, picked up my kids and fled to a neighbour’s house. I have heard about poltergeist activity but I have never encountered anything like this before. There is no way I ever want to go inside that house again.”
Solicitor Mr Tom Kirwan described Miss McLean as a “level-headed, practical woman.” He said he had already written to the city council housing department asking them to move the three back to their former Sinfin hom, now being renovated. Mr Philip Davies, assistant housing director, said Miss McLean had agreed the Spondon house would be suitable before moving there. “We will review the situation carefully and will do whatever we can to help Miss McLean,” he said.
Derby Daily Telegraph, 9th March 1987.