Haunting caught on photograph
May 28 2006
By The Sunday Sun
This scary shadow may not look like much to the untrained eye, but ghost hunters believe it could prove that spooks exist.
And it was taken right here in the North of England.
The apparent apparition was snapped during a charity investigation at Newcastle Keep, where paranormal teams from all over the UK gathered to spend a night searching for spirits.
Mark Winter, of Blyth, Northumberland, was one of four members of the North East Ghost In-Spectres research team who were holding a vigil in the Galleries section of the 12th-Century castle when he took the photo.
But it wasn't until he looked at the photo on a laptop that the figure appeared . . . and Mark and his ghost-hunting pals are convinced it's genuine.
Mark, 30, said: "I was taking photographs of the corridors that overlook the great hall and I was amazed to see I had caught what can only be described as a black mass, about four feet tall, that seems to be coming out of the wall.
Phantom
"We don't know what it is, but we know it's not human."
There were many groups of paranormal aficionados at the charity night, including Mark Webb from ITV2 show Haunted Homes and York's ghost hunter Rachel Lacy.
But event organiser Darren Ritson, of Howden, North Tyneside, says no one else was in the galleries area, fuelling the phantom theory.
Darren, 34, who is also founder of the group, said: "The photo has left everyone baffled, including Mark Webb who, like us, can't find a logical explanation.
"I've spent 12 nights at the Keep and this is the best photo I've ever seen."
He added: "The Keep curator, Paul McDonald, is now going through 50 tons of paperwork to try and find out if anything happened in the galleries in the past to give us a clue as to who or what the shadow may be."
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