GHOST THAT CAME OUT OF THE CLOSET
Landlord's terror at phantom menace
Emma Dunlop
4/26/06

A TERRIFIED landlord is calling in a priest to exorcise his Yorkshire
pub after he confronted a ghostly apparition causing mayhem to his
premises.Roger Froggatt, of the Low Valley Arms, was left severely
shocked after seeing the ghostly figure of a woman dressed all in white
when he went to what he thought was a break-in at his Barnsley pub
around at 1.30am yesterday.But it was when he went to check the toilets
that he got the shock of his life.In front of him stood the grotesquely
disfigured apparition of an elderly woman dressed all in ghostly white.

When she turned to look at him he saw half her face was missing, from
her cheekbone down to her jaw.He and his wife Kathryn were so terrified
they called the police who also witnessed spooky goings-on.Three plasma
television screens had switched themselves on.A heat-seeking alarm had
also been activated and the manually-operated toilets were flushing
themselves â€" which police last night confirmed they too had seen
â€" yet there was nobody in the pub or any sign of a break-in.

Regulars say the ghost may be that of a former barmaid who died some
years ago at the Station Road pub in Darfield.The frightened couple are
now planning to call in a priest to carry out an exorcism to rid the pub
of the evil spirit.Mr Froggatt, 49, was so shaken that the police
offered to call him an ambulance but he refused medical treatment. He
said: "I have never seen anything like it in my life. I had made the pub
secure, switched off all the power to the television screens then went
upstairs with my wife to bed in our flat on the premises."I was woken
when the alarm went off and went downstairs to see if I could hear
anything but heard nothing and reset it and went back to bed.

"There are heat-seeking sensors all over the pub and if anyone had been
inside the bar area the alarm would have gone off again within three
seconds."I went back to sleep then the alarm went off about
one-and-a-half hours later. I heard nothing again and reset the alarm
but this time decided to investigate further and went into the pub armed
with a lump of wood in case there were burglars."I will never forget
what I saw.

All three plasma television screens were switched on. My wife went to
switch them off and I checked the toilets."When I went into the ladies I
couldn't believe what I saw. There was a figure of what I believe was a
woman with no face and silvery grey hair, dressed in a white gown."I
stood there for about four or five seconds then fled in terror. I ran
out of there, I was that shaken. I couldn't speak. I couldn't even speak
to the police when they arrived soon afterwards after my wife called
them."She took two officers into the toilets and they saw them just
flushing by themselves, all the time.

They are not automatic and you have to pull the handle down. There was
nobody there."I can't remember much about it after that. I was shaking.
I have never seen anything like it before and don't want to again. It
was the ugliest thing I have ever seen."Mr Froggatt insisted he was a
man who was not easily frightened and one who had run pubs for some
time."This has just done my head in," he said."We've had gas taps
turning themselves on in the cellar and barrels mysteriously moving
about but have just dismissed it as figments of our imagination.

But believe me, last night was real."Mr Froggatt and his wife Kathryn,
55, have run the pub, formerly called the Watt Tyler, for just a year.A
South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Officers attended and made a
search of the property. On entering the toilet area the pedestal toilets
in the cubicles began to flush themselves. We are still
investigating."