‘Janet spoke in a horrific, male voice’

A statement by policewoman Carolyn Keeps describes how she and another PC heard eerie noises while standing in the living room that initial night.

She adds: “The lights went off and within a few minutes the eldest son pointed to a chair which was standing next to the sofa.

“I looked at the chair and noticed that it was wobbling from side to side. I then saw the chair slide across the floor towards the kitchen wall.

“It moved three or four feet and then came to rest. I could find nothing to explain how it had moved.”

Despite the officers being unnerved, no crime had been committed and there was nothing they could do.

The family reluctantly moved back in, having taken refuge with a neighbour, but over the next few months the haunting intensified.

Newspapers got wind of the story and several journalists took up residence in the property in a bid to witness the phenomena for themselves.

They didn’t have to wait long – Graham Morris, a photographer for

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: The kids being thrown around their bedroom ( and Janet’s blankets moving the Daily Mirror, was left with a bruised head having been struck by a flying Lego brick, inexplicably hurled by an unseen force.

Marbles were also being chucked by the ‘ ghost’, and appeared red- hot.

Morris photographed a curtain twisting into a tight spiral and being blown into the room… despite the fact the window behind it was firmly closed.

Other images shot by Morris show bedclothes moving, as if pulled by an invisible being.

And it wasn’t just people inside the house who saw horrifying spectacles.

A lollipop lady outside watched through a bedroom window, mouth open, as daughter Janet appeared to float two feet above her bed before moving around in circles.

The woman, Hazel Short, said: “She was horizontal going up and down with her arms and legs going everywhere. It was frightening.”

And even the BBC was left dumbfounded. When they attempted

TERRORISED: Peggy and her children to capture audio, their equipment malfunctioned to the point where internal metal components were bent and the recordings were erased.

For 13 months, the Hodgsons were terrorised.

Now mum Peggy, at her wits’ end, contacted specialists in the paranormal – the Society for Psychical Research.

World War II veteran Maurice Grosse led the SPR investigation – and from the get- go the poltergeist didn’t take kindly to his meddling.

It was Janet who bore the brunt of the spirit’s wrath. Not only was she seen – and photographed – being thrown around her bedroom and levitating while sat on a cushion, Janet was also speaking in an horrific, male voice.

Some doctors have theorised that Janet was able to make these disturbing tones because of ‘ plica ventricularis’, a disorder affecting her vocal cords.

Janet was still able to ‘ speak’ when Grosse filled her mouth with water and taped it shut!

This otherworldly man soon identified himself as ‘ Bill’, and told Grosse, through Janet: “Before I died I went blind I had a haemorrhage and I died in a chair downstairs…”

All these accounts are readily available to listen to on the internet – but be warned, they’ll give you nightmares!

Peggy, reluctant to leave, lived on Green Street until her death in 2003, but the poltergeist appears to have calmed down by the 1980s.

Johnny died of cancer aged 14 while Janet, now 49 and unwilling to talk about what she endured, is haunted still.

Janet, who also lost a baby to cot death when she was 18, said in 2007: “It was real… it lived off me, off my energy. Call me mad if you like. Those events did happen. The poltergeist was with me – and I feel in a sense he always will be.”

THE film: Newlyweds move into a large house where a mass murder was committed and experience strange manifestations which drive them away.

The case that inspired it: In 1974 psychopath Ronald DeFeo shot and killed six family members in their home in Amityville, Long Island, New York.

Thirteen months later the Lutz family moved in – and were haunted by all manner of spooky apparitions. That included ‘ Jodie’ – a demonic, black pig with glowing red eyes.

THE film: Poltergeists attack a family in Yorkshire during the 1974 nationwide blackouts.

The case: Jean and Joe Pritchard called in the police after claiming their home in Pontefract was being haunted by a sinister ‘ Black Monk’ who was becoming increasingly violent.

In one instance the Pritchards’ youngest daughter

Diane was dragged up the stairs by her throat while suffering lacerations to her neck.