Welcome to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world famous psychic researcher Tom Slemen, for the Globe.

In this latest story, Tom explores the terrifying tale of Quancass the Wirral demon...

In the 1970s there was a curious, little-known case of a teenaged arsonist who was caught with a box of matches and a bottle of paraffin in his possession near an industrial warehouse in Birkenhead.

Detectives who were investigating a recent spate of arson attacks across Wirral had watched the youth leave a hardware shop where he had purchased a can of paraffin, and they had also observed him throwing jars filled with petrol (siphoned from cars) the night before on wasteland near the docks.

The arsonist had used an ingenious detonator (which I will not describe) which ignited the jars of petrol on impact.

The youth was confronted by the police near the warehouse and broke down almost immediately, but he said he didn’t want to start any fires – it was Quancass who was making him do it.

The police took him in and a consultant psychiatrist examined the pyromaniac.

The medical man had heard about this 'Quancass' before from other arsonists over the years, all in the North West area, and the firebugs all said the same thing: Quancass was some demon in a weird leather mask and glowing eyes who appeared in their dreams and tortured them with fire.

He always tied them down then burned their toes and fingers, and sometimes their chests, and then he would make a weird stipulation. "If you do not burn down a building when you wake, I will burn you alive in your dreams and you shall never wake."

And sure enough, the terrifying masked torturer would appear in the dreams of his victims on successive nights, subjecting them to all sorts of agonising treatment until the dreamer awoke in agony – and quickly decided to do what the sinister demon in the dream had ordered them to do.

If one person had experienced these weird dreams, it would be explained away as some mental disorder, but this was the fifth time the psychiatrist had heard about Quancass.

The teenaged arsonist was allowed to live at home with his parents under a two-year supervision order, and he subsequently died in his sleep just under a month later after experiencing continual nightmares about the demonic Quancass.

The mystery of Quancass ran much deeper than the psychiatrist knew.

In the 1990s, a certain Wirral pub was being renovated when a small scroll of parchment was found in a hole in a wooden beam, and written upon this scroll in faded brown ink were the chilling words, "When you read this you shall be sorry you did because you read the name of Quancass with the skin of shadow and you shall never be rid of him haha."

Christine, the wife of the pub landlord, began to have terrible nightmares about a weird figure in a black leather mask with mad-looking eyes.

This figure of fear would always tie Christine to some rack, and then he would burn her toes and fingers with a candle.

The nightmares were so realistic, Christine would awake screaming in agony, and she ended up staying in the house of a Catholic priest and attended Mass each day.

Meanwhile, back at the pub, the figure from Christine’s dreams would appear and terrify the drinkers.

The apparition was well over six feet in height, wore a long dark coat and a black leather mask with studs and a ‘snout’ so it resembled the head of a dog.

One report said that this menacing figure wielded an enormous knife.

I mentioned the 'bogeyman' on a local radio show where I was a guest talking about matters of the supernatural, and the station received many calls from listeners who had allegedly encountered a towering entity in a bizarre leather mask of the type I had described.

Over and over I heard of the modus operandi of the terrifying figure from listeners.

He would invariably appear after dark in places ranging from New Ferry Park to secluded locations in Birkenhead and Bebington, sometimes sporting a silver pentangle on his chest, and in a whispering voice he would ask, "Who is your saviour? The one above or the Lord below?"

And if the person the question was addressed to failed to supply an answer or had the composure to say 'Above' the tall masked menacing inquisitor would scream and strike the victim with a large machete, but at that precise instant he would vanish, so the blade of the weapon would only inflict psychological damage.

The target of the strange attack would also experience a string of nightmares commencing that same night which involved being tortured by fire.

The description of the tall attacker matches that of the 'Quancass' mentioned by the arsonists – but who or what is Quancass?

It is probable that he is a demon, given his mention of the 'Lord below' in his strange query – but demons are usually conjured up by someone, perhaps an occultist or Satanist.

Quancass seems to have been at large in Wirral for centuries, and as recent as 2016, I received a report of a weird exceptionally tall figure in a leather mask who stalked a woman walking her dog in New Ferry Park.

She sensed he was evil and made the sign of the cross, and the unearthly figure vanished...

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