Exorcisms on the rates

Should South Tyneside council employ an Exorcist?

South Shields poltergeist hits the news - and after Easington District Council in County Durham had paid an exorcist to drive away a poltergeist from a family home which was owned by the local housing association, we must wonder whether our council might need to do the same.

It’s a fascinating ghost story, and I’m sure there are others like it in South Shields, here’s an extract:

Marc and Marianne got undressed and quickly slipped under the duvet. Although the heating had been on for many hours, it was unusually cold in their normally snug bedroom.

In spite of the cold, they tried to drift off to sleep after a hard day looking after their boisterous three-year-old son, Robert.

Seconds later, Marianne was hit on the head by their son’s toy dog. She sat bolt upright in bed.

The cuddly toy was clearly aimed at her, but who - or what - could have thrown it?

Moments later another stuffed dog hit her on the head. Soon the air was thick with flying toys.

All seemed to appear in mid-flight, apparently from nowhere, and were hurled with great force at the petrified couple.

Marc and Marianne hugged the duvet closer to try to protect themselves from the flying toys.

An invisible hand grabbed the far corner of the duvet and pulled in the opposite direction.

Soon they were involved in a tug-of-war with some supernatural force.

Just as quickly as it had started, the tugging stopped. But it was replaced by something even more sinister.

‘Marianne, my body feels like it’s burning,’ said Marc, panic-stricken. ‘What’s happening to me?’

All across his back, scratches had started to appear. In the space of a few minutes, 13 separate scratches appeared across Marc’s back.

Burning intensely, they felt as though a powerful beast was slowly drawing its claws across his body. But just as quickly as the scratches appeared, they vanished.

Over the following few months, Marc and Marianne’s family suffered numerous assaults by a violent ghost that came to be known as the ‘South Shields Poltergeist’. Cuddly toys came alive and toilets flushed with blood.

In the mark of what was a very 21st-century haunting, ghostly text messages inexplicably appeared on mobile phones.

It seems the ‘ghost’ was completely au fait with modern technology.

One of the first signs of the poltergeist infestation was a series of disturbing messages left on their son’s doodle board.

‘Die bitch’, ‘RIP’ and ‘Go bitch now to your mam’ had been scrawled on the message board. They were followed by the appearance of Satanic-looking symbols.

The family is adamant that the messages were not hoaxes left by them. Their origin remains a mystery.

Messages from the poltergeist soon became even more sinister. Chilling text messages began appearing on Marianne’s phone.

One warned her: ‘Going to die today, going to get you.’ Another read: ‘I can get you when you awake and I’ll come for you when you asleep, bitch.’

All appeared to be from the poltergeist, and arrived seemingly from nowhere. None could be traced to a mobile phone, computer or landline. Once again, there appeared to be no rational explanation.

‘When I was outside the house, it would continuously call my mobile from our home phone even though I knew for certain that no one was in the house,’ says Marianne.

‘It sent me death threats by text. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get away from it.’

Of course the whole story is included in a new book co written by Shields Gazette columnist Mike Hallowell, who even claims to have video footage of some of the strange events;

One evening, Mike was working at the house and saw a dark shape appear on the landing outside the couple’s son’s room. Marianne saw it, too, and screamed.

‘The entity walked slowly from the bathroom, across the landing into the bedroom,’ says Mike.

‘As it passed the door to Robert’s room, it paused and stared icily at me. Its face, devoid of all features such as eyes, nose or mouth, was cold and menacing. It felt like it was burrowing into my soul.

‘It was large - maybe two metres in height - and midnight black. It was a three-dimensional silhouette that just radiated sheer evil.’

Mike was so stunned by what he saw that he didn’t manage to switch the camera on in time.

‘It was gutting,’ says Mike. ‘We all saw it, but we didn’t get the proof we needed.’

A few days later they were given a second chance when the poltergeist once again attacked Marc.

Just as before, Marc felt the entity approach him and start drawing its talons down his back.

‘You could actually watch the scratches forming,’ says Mike. ‘First an elongated red patch, then sharply defined scratches within it.

Cuts started to appear on the right-hand side of his back. They immediately bled. Then Marc’s skin started to change colour. It went dark, almost as if it was sunburnt. I’ve seen film and stills of poltergeist scratches appearing before, but nothing like this.’

The investigators frantically checked their video cameras and, this time, they’d caught the attack on tape.

Although the quality was poor, they could see the scratches appearing on Marc’s back.

How extraordinary, but a remarkable way to publicise a new book, now let me tell you about the time when my (then) two year old son’s toys started playing without any batteries installed at 02:30 am one evening!

The South Shields Poltergeist by Michael J. Hallowell and Darren W. Ritson, is published by The History Press at £16.99. To order a copy for £15.30 (p&p free), call 0845 606 4206.

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