‘I’ll find the truth behind stories of Highgate horror’

11 March 2005

Ghost hunter Andrew Wright.

Andrew Brightwell

AN AMATEUR ghost hunter will be tracking down the haunts of ghouls in a Highgate street.

Paranormal investigator Andrew Wright aims to test the truth of several spooky sightings in Swain's Lane.

In May, the 49-year-old security guard from Leicester will be accompanied by ghost experts from Greece and the USA to finally lay to rest claims of a "disturbance" at Highgate Cemetery in the 1970s.

He said: "There are three ghosts that seem to have been sighted on the road: a man on a bicycle riding up the road and another who is supposed to walk through walls.

"But the most terrifying of all is one that is supposed to reach out and try to grab people."

Mr Wright, who became fascinated by ghosts after reading the novel Amityville Horror, said he wanted to hear from anyone who had experienced any strange sightings in Swain's Lane.

He believes that many of the urban myths date back more than 30 years ago.

He said: "About three decades ago, a dog walker returning, presumably from the Heath, had parked in the road.

"When he got back to his car there was a freshly dug up corpse in his car. Bizarrely, the doors were still locked.

"At the time there were all sorts of strange rituals going on around there and rumours of corpses being dug up from Highgate Cemetery.

"Ever since then there seem to have been a number of sightings of ghosts and they seem worth checking up on."

David Farrant, who lives in Muswell Hill Road, said that the reports of grave robbery sprang from his own investigations into a ghostly apparition seen in Highgate Cemetery.

He said: "I went into the cemetery at night to investigate them, thinking they were nothing more than tree branches casting shadows in the moonlight, but I myself saw a tall figure that convinced me.

"We went down there a few nights later to hold a seance, but were arrested by the police who were keeping watch."

Mr Farrant said the case made the newspapers and the TV across the globe, drawing fans of the occult to the Highgate burial ground.

He said: "It led to a lot of interest in the cemetery, and I'm afraid that people did dig up bodies and terrible damage was done to it."

Residents in Swain's Lane were taken aback by the idea their quiet road was a haunt for the undead.

Janice Lavery said: "Are you serious? I can honestly say I have never seen a ghost and I know that none of my neighbours have seen a ghost."

andrew.brightwell@hamhigh.co.uk