Taxpayer's money spent on�.an exorcism

[AB Asks]

Sabrina Fallon heard strange noises coming from her loft, scared, she called the police who found nothing in her attic. The strange event was then followed by even more bizarre happenings, she apparently saw her dressing gown float down the stairs, doors would slam shut and she saw the ghost of a small girl appear. They decided to call in ghostbuster, Suzanne Hadwin, who said there was a poltergeist trying to possess Mrs Fallon's young daughter. Mr Fallon quit his job to protect his family and had been told that a murder had taken place in their house 50 years previously. Hadwin agreed to carry out an exorcism for �120 of which the council paid half, she said she had to call in some angels and pray to get rid of the evil spirit. What do you think? Is this a woman trying to make a quick buck? Is it bad the council contributed to this kind of activity?

[jake-the-peg]

A spokesman for Easington District Council said it agreed to pay half of the exorcism because the family were "extremely distressed" and the alternative was �40-per-night emergency accommodation.

She added that the council is committed to preventing homelessness by a number of measures, "albeit none of them quite as unusual as this".


�60 sounds cheaper than the psychiatry that was obviously the real solution - sounds like money well spent as long as they don't make a habit of it!

[daffy654]

I heard of a case a while back where a type of mould or fungus growing in the walls of a house caused the family in it to hallucinate as they were breathing in the spores.They also claimed to see ghosts and objects floating about in mid air.This could be something similar (or maybe just a family of nutters)

[WaldoMcFroog]

It's giving money to people who are either con artists or deluded, and encourages irrationality in the credulous.

[123everton]

The council should ask for the money back plus interest when they sign the book, film and newspaer deals.
They should'nt have paid out and if they left I'd say they'd made themselves intentionally homeless.

[Twenty20]

Yes, but then it cost half a million because a woman on an oil rig had a bad dream........

[LoftyLottie]

Nothing when compared to our money being spent on this farce.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080212/tuk- huge-bill-for-diana-murder-probe-45dbed5.html

[tigerlily11]

The thing is after many terrible events many people come forward and say they dreamed it would happen. Most say 'well why didn't you come forward before hand.' Well thats the reason why. People ridicule them.
As for the house buisness, I have never believed Mediums or "ghostbusters" as they like to be called,can do what they say they can. After all we only have their word for it. But it is cheaper than putting them up in a hotel for the night. If it was mold and fungus then why has it stopped if the council didn't remove it?
But how long will it be for the likes of Derek Acora to cotton on to this scam.
It is a chilling thought that some like him is easily able to convince people he can see the dead.

[daffy654]

tigerlily,the moulds and fungi i'm talking about are not always easily visible,they could be growing in a wall cavity or loft or cellar,or beneath sinks,in cupboards etc. The spores will be released into the air and are microscopic and not visible to the human eye. I'm not saying this is the case here for definite,just mooting one possibility.

[Supernick]

People don't dream about the future. Sometimes there is a coincidence.
This month I have dreamed about.

1. Shooting someone
2. My brother comitting suicide
3. sex with a friend
4. eating frozen blackberries
to name a few

All could in theory happen, and it would in no way be spooky, or in any way relevant to what happened in real life.

[persianlady]

I have a friend whose house was haunted. She never saw anything, but "something" used to touch her when she was cooking. Things kept disappearing and turning up in odd places ie. her sons slippers disappeared and turned up on the bathroom window sill two days later. Her husband used to work regular nights and when she was alone in bed at night this something used to clunk up the stairs and walk across the landing and bang on her bedroom door. Of course she was petrifie, but no- one would believe her. It made her ill. Then one night this thing came up the stairs and banged on the bedroom door when her hubby was at home. He got up and opened the door and nothing was there. They moved shortly after this. She is a normal sane person. She is not a nutter.

[babybombo]

My mum would have rather sawn her own leg off than believe anything about ghosts or poltergeists.
But when I was younger the whole family moved house because she couldn't stand to live in it anymore.
My oldest sister wouldn't go to sleep in her room because she said there was a man who stood in the corner of her room at night and that his eyes shone in the light from her window. I was too young to understand any of that at the time, and I had never heard my sister speak of it. So they put me in that room and I cried every night, and one night I just kept saying the word "eyes" over and over.
SO eventually no one slept in that room but then things started to disappear around the house, even when we moved and absolutely everything was packed we didnt find them.
My mum was still completely skeptical (sp?) but the final straw was when she was in the house on her own one day, stood at the top of the stairs and she said she was "pushed" down the stairs, she felt a physical force
shove her even though there was no one in the house. She fractured her neck and twisted her arm.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is, these things happen and you dont have to believe in them or think about what it is that happens, but they do.
Like everyone else, I'd rather they paid that, than paying for hotel expenses. And how could they be getting money out of this, the council would have needed evidence of where the money went, they wouldnt just hand it to the family trusting them to do the right thing with it, so they would have still needed to pay the other half, costing the family money.

[Booldawg]

were they able to claim benefit for the extra 'person' living in their house?