A RECLUSIVE author who stood trial for hunting vampires in the 1970s has won another legal battle – to stay in his flat

Charlotte Newton

A RECLUSIVE author who stood trial for "hunting vampires" in the 1970s has won another legal battle - to stay in his flat.

David Farrant is president of the British Psychic and the Occult Society. He is also the author of numerous paperbacks about paranormal phenomena.

In the 1970s, he became known as the "vampire hunter" after police arrested and charged him for his vampire-hunting activities in Highgate Cemetery.

He stood trial and was acquitted. Mr Farrant has always denied the charge and maintains that part of his work is communicating with the paranormal. Anxious residents, he claims, had asked him to exorcise a troubled ghost from the cemetery.

Last week, Mr Farrant, 62, won another legal fight after taking his landlord Happy Homes (M25 Ltd) to court.

He has lived in three rooms in the attic of a house in Muswell Hill Road for 32 years. Happy Homes (M25 Ltd) bought the building in 1999 and offered to buy Mr Farrant out - but he refused.

The property needs considerable repair work done to it but Happy Homes (M25 Ltd) refused to carry out the work unless Mr Farrant temporarily vacated the premises.

Mr Farrant said: "When Happy Homes (M25 Ltd) bought the building, they wanted to convert the whole house into three luxury flats - but I didn't want the structure of my flat to change. I didn't want to move out for the repair work either."

Now he has won the right to stay there and have the place repaired around him. He was also awarded £4,000 in compensation.

Mr Farrant said: "The money's not important. All I've been asking for is to be able to remain in my home while the work is carried out. I just want the basic repairs done so that I can get on with my writing and maybe a few more paranormal investigations."

Philip Blake, from Happy Homes (M25 Ltd), said: "We always ask tenants if they would like to move out when we purchase a property because we are developers and that's what we do. However, if the tenant doesn't want to move out that's the end of the matter.

"We recently asked Mr Farrant to move out temporarily into another room in the same building so that we could do the work much more quickly.

"It will take twice as long and cost twice as much is Mr Farrant is in situ. But there was never any question of him not being allowed to move back into his home. The matter has now been settled out of court."

broadway@hamhigh.co.uk