After living in a haunted house, I know there IS a spirit world

When ANNE BATESON moved into her new Leeds home with her husband and young daughter, it sparked a series of unexplained paranormal experiences... including a 'visit' from her deceased father

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FAST asleep next to my husband Martin, we were both startled awake by piercing screams in the darkness.

The bedroom door flew open and our 10-year-old daughter Aaron and her friend, there for a sleepover, came racing into our room.

Martin and I held out our arms to comfort them but for several seconds, the girls were too petrified to speak. Eventually, they described a grey mist appearing in their bedroom and within it, the figure of a young woman.

Both terrified girls had dived under the covers, unsure if they had imagined it or not. Plucking up the courage to take a second look, they peered out and to their horror, the lady was still there, staring out of the window. They ran shrieking into our room.

“There, there,” I soothed. “I’m sure it was just a trick of the light.”

But both girls were adamant they had seen someone. Martin turned on the lights and checked the bedroom, reassuring the girls that the room was empty. After several minutes, we coaxed them back to bed. They even managed to sleep.

Many parents will have experienced similar ‘nightmares’ with children, their over imaginative brains conjuring up images in the dead of night.

But as Martin and I returned to bed, we exchanged knowing glances. We knew the girls were telling the truth.

Since moving into West Grove, an imposing four-bedroom Victorian house in a suburb of Leeds, we had each experienced several ghostly events in a few short months.

We’d done our best to dismiss them as simply “weird weather phenomena” or kids “messing about”.

Martin was especially sceptical. But deep down, not me. Before moving there, I had never experienced anything ghostly — apart from strange premonitions — but I'd always been fascinated by spirits and mediums.

Moving to West Grove opened my eyes to the spirit world. I was beginning to believe our house was a hotbed of paranormal activity. I was right.