The activity seemed to be centred around Janet Hodgson, then aged eleven. Her mother of course, thought that Janet was playing pranks. However, things began to get worse and it soon became evident that none of the children, or anybody else for that matter, could be responsible for the strange events that were beginning to unfold.

Some truly terrifying events happened to a young family living in an ordinary house in the small town of South Shields. Apart from the usual loud knocks and flying objects, this poltergeist liked to arrange children’s toys in sinister displays of violence. A fluffy rabbit was poised holding a knife to the throat of a toy duck. A teddy bear was hanged by its neck from a shelf.

The young couple received obscene text messages from phones that were not in working order. Other messages were scrawled on a child’s doodle board. One said ‘just go now’; another message introduced their tormentor as ‘Sammy’. The couple were physically attacked, large red scratches appearing on their bodies.

Their three year old son would suddenly disappear, only to be found seconds later locked in a closet, tightly bound in a blanket. Again, this activity died down, without any explanation found.