Possessed by a violent ghoul
A violent cop’s ghost possessed my boyfriend My boyfriend was whitefaced and shaking Gavin snarled and tried to bite my hand
I’m always up for a laugh, so when my new boyfriend, Gavin Ward, asked me to go on a paranormal investigation with him, I didn’t hesitate.
‘Yeah, why not? It’ll be fun,’ I grinned happily.
It was July 2015 and I’d met *DYLQ ¿YH PRQWKV EHIRUH ZKHQ he’d come into the hotel in Grantham, Lincolnshire, where I worked as a waiter. He’d asked me out on Valentine’s Day. Straight away, we’d known we were meant to be together. We’d got engaged just two weeks later.
I’d never been on a ghost hunt before. But as Gavin was into all things paranormal, I
was really excited about going with him and our mates, Mel and Jules, to the paranormal investigation at the notoriously haunted Old Nick Theatre in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
The Old Nick
The theatre used to be a police station and magistrates’ court. The court room had been converted into a theatre, and there was now a police museum in what was once the cells. Walking past the gloomy, dank lock-ups, I shuddered at the thought of being shut in one for the night.
Up in the old courtroom, Gavin was chosen to be a ‘human pendulum,’ where the spirits in the place would push him forwards for ‘yes’ and backwards for ‘no’ in answer to questions asked by the group.
‘Please don’t hurt him,’ I muttered nervously as I watched him swaying.
After about 20 minutes, the team leader suggested we took a break, so we went into the room next door, sat down with a cuppa.
But as I was chatting away to Gavin, he seemed pale and distant.
‘You don’t look right,’ I told him. He shook his head wordlessly at me.
Worried, I found the investigation group’s medium, Lynn, and asked her to check Gavin over for me.
I watched anxiously from a few metres away as members of the team gathered round him.
‘He’s been taken over,’ one of them yelled suddenly. ‘We’ve got to get him outside!’
I froze with horror.
Could this really be happening? Had Gavin actually been possessed by a ghost?
Four male members of the team pulled Gavin up, tried to lead him across the room. But Gavin started growling and lashing out, trying to bite and kick them.
Personality change
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Normally, my lovely boyfriend ZRXOGQ¶W KXUW D À\ 7KHUH ZDV RQO\ one explanation that made any sense to me - the evil spirit was making him violent.
I could still hear Gavin yelling and cursing as they half-carried, half-dragged him down stairs and outside.
‘What if he gets hurt?’ I sobbed in terror to Mel and Jules.
My heart was in my mouth as I waited. Finally, a team member came back up, took me to where Gavin was sitting outside. He was white-faced and shaking.
‘I don’t know what just happened,’ he told me, tears pouring down his cheeks.
Not wanting to upset him even more by telling him what had taken place, I just gave him a hug. ‘It’s OK,’ I soothed.
When Gavin started feeling better, we went back up to the
theatre. That’s when the team leader picked up on a spirit called Bob, who’d been a policeman working at the station.
We soon worked out that he was the nasty spirit who had taken possession of Gavin.
Judgement day
‘He’s come to judge you because you once did something wrong,’ the team leader told Gavin.
Gavin gulped. ‘When I was a child, I stole some sweets from a shop,’ he admitted.
What? Bob had attacked Gavin just for nicking a few sweets as a kid! I shook my head in disbelief.
But nasty
Bob wasn’t
¿QLVKHG It wasn’t enough for him that he’d made my boyfriend feel bad about an ancient, forgotten transgression.
Suddenly, a table started moving in mid-air, while no one was touching it. The table pinned me against a door.
As I struggled to escape, I knew it was Bob, trying to intimidate me.
A short while later, we were standing holding hands in a circle when Gavin suddenly froze. Then he started growling. My stomach lurched with horror. Oh no! It couldn’t be...
Bob was back - and he’d possessed Gavin for a second time!
‘Please help me,’ the woman who was holding Gavin’s hand whimpered. ‘He’s crushing my ¿QJHUV and it hurts.’
Everyone rushed across to help her.
‘Gavin, come back,’ I called, touching his face. I winced as Gavin snarled angrily and tried to bite my hand.
What had started out as a bit of fun had turned into something dark and terrifying. I was worried sick that the dark force would harm Gavin.
What if we couldn’t get him back...?
Recovery
Luckily, we managed to coax Gavin outside, where he started to recover. Once again, he had no recollection of what had taken place just a few minutes earlier.
‘What happened, Martyn?’ he asked me nervously. ‘I’ll tell you some other time,’ I told him, trying to sound upbeat. I felt anything but, though. The evening had taken its toll and I was scared and tired. We decided to call it a night. Gavin felt too weak to drive home to Grantham, so I had to take the wheel instead.
The following day, I told Gavin what had happened at the ghost KXQW +H ZDV KRUUL¿HG
‘I’m not like that,’ he kept saying. ‘I’m not violent or aggressive.’
‘Don’t worry, I know you’re not,’ I reassured him.
'HWHUPLQHG WR ¿QG RXW PRUH Gavin did some online research about the Old Nick.
He discovered that many years before, a police superintendent called Bob had been beaten to death in one of the cells by a prisoner whom he’d previously assaulted, allegedly.
Bob was still trapped in the place where he died, consumed with hate and anger.
We believe that Bob targeted Gavin because he’d recently been ill with gall stones. His immune system was low and so he was the weakest person there that night.
Although it had been Bob’s job to uphold the law, he was a judgmental bully and a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Gavin has been back to the Old Nick. But as for me, what happened there frightened me so much that I simply haven’t plucked up the courage to return.
Seeing Gavin being possessed, my kind and loving partner’s face being transformed by hate and rage, was an utterly horrifying experience.
Luckily, I knew him well enough to know it was totally out of character for him.
%XW DV ¿UVW JKRVW KXQWV JR my nightmare at the Old Nick has to be one of the most terrifying ever!