Violent young girl from haunted house.
A Whitstable girl of 15, whose family home was haunted by a poltergeist, violently attacked two police women. She pulled hair out of the scalp of one officer and bit another in the leg, drawing blood. She became so violent that she was put in a cell, which she then set alight. Eventually, she had to be handcuffed and bound round the ankles. The story was told to Sandwich Juvenile Court on Tuesday, when magistrates ordered her to pay compensation to the two women officers.
The girl admitted assaulting W.P.C. Frances Caroline Willows at Herne Bay on 25 April in the execution of her duty; assaulting W.P.C. Janine Turner at Canterbury on 12 May, causing actual bodily harm; and damaging by fire the interior paintwork, bench seat and floor tiles of a detention cell at the Canterbury courthouse on 12 May.
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Mr Francis Elton, defending, said there was more than an element of disturbance in the young girl’s life since 1978 when there was an incident resulting in her being taken to hospital. She did not share her mother’s strong devotion to the Roman Catholic faith and felt that to some extent it had been forced upon her. He said: “She had told me that she does not mind going to church every Sunday and is quite happy to do so. But she does not think the whole of her life throughout her waking hours should revolve around the practice of her religion.” Mr Elton said although the girl loved her mother, she was convinced her mother did not love her. That may have been the cause of the trouble over the last three or four years. She believed her mother wanted her aborted during the early stages of her pregnancy and she was born only because of a change of heart.
Mr Elton had represented the girl in 1979 when she was put into care. At that time, her parents told him they were suffering considerably from a poltergeist in the home. It was disrupting home life and various items were flung about the house. Attempts by the local Catholic priest to have it exorcised had proved relatively unsuccessful.
At the age of 13 she made a number of offensive telephone calls at a time when she was playing truant. She was sent to a specialist school on the outskirts of London. It was a strict Roman Catholic school administered by nuns. She had returned home for the weekend in April and one night when she slept with a friend her mother reported her missing.
The girl was conditionally discharged for two years. The care order will continue. She was ordered to pay £50 compensation to W.P.C. Willows and £25 to W.P.C. Turner at the rate of 75p a week.
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 19th June 1981.