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

This week, Tom tells the tale of a frightening encounter with an 'imaginery friend'.

TIME and time again I have received emails, letters and - when on air talking about the supernatural on a radio programme - calls from listeners about the weird atmosphere around Storeton Road and Barnston Dale in particular. 

In summer 1948, two children, Helen and Gary - both aged five - were having a picnic at Barnston Dale, a popular beauty spot for ramblers. 

Helen's parents and Gary's parents were neighbours, and as they chatted at the picnic, Helen and Gary managed to slip away unnoticed. 

They crawled through a hole in a hedge and came face to face with a tall man dressed as a teddy bear in a furry suit.

He wore a furry headpiece with round ears; his face was plastered in beige make-up and his nose had been painted a dark colour.

His bulging, staring eyes frightened Gary, but Helen thought he was harmless.

He placed the index finger of his furry-gloved hand to his lips, gesturing for the children to be quiet, and in a well-spoken voice whispered: "Come with me, children, come along."

Helen smiled and followed him but Gary, sensing something very odd, stayed put.

Helen turned around and shouted "Come on, Gary! Don't be afraid!" 

The man in the teddy bear suit also turned around and whispered: "Come on, Gary!"

Gary walked with Helen and the strange man across a field, but then the boy was gripped with the feeling that something bad was going to happen to him and Helen, so he suddenly turned around and ran back to the adults.

He heard Helen and the man shouting for him to come back, but kept on running.

When he reached his parents, he told them a man dressed as "a big teddy bear" had asked Helen to go off with him, and within minutes the four adults were rushing across the field Gary had directed them to. 

They found Helen, walking towards them through overgrown grass in a dazed state. Her mother and father asked her what had happened, but the girl started to cry.  

"Did he touch you?" asked Helen’s father, and the girl continued to sob.

"Helen, what did he do to you?" the girl’s frantic mother asked, and then she scanned the field but was unable to see anyone knocking about.

Helen held out her trembling hand to her father and he saw her palm was cut and bleeding.

Eventually, Helen managed to tell her parents that the stranger in the teddy bear suit had cut her hand with a knife and then he had cut his own hand and he had placed her cut hand in his and had said they were now blood friends, and then he had told her: "I'm your friend forever, his or hers never!"

The adults searched for the man in the bizarre teddy bear suit without success, and the police were informed, but the weird man was never found.

In the meantime, Helen underwent a strange change in her personality.

She became quiet and informed her parents and her grandmother that the Teddy Bear Man had started to visit her during the night, and she explained he was her best friend and that he would protect her while she slept. 

A child psychiatrist believed the Teddy Bear Man was just like an imaginary friend and had most likely been caused by the trauma of the maniac who had cut Helen's hand, but this "imaginary friend" did not go away as Helen grew older.

When she reached 11 years of age, Helen told Gary that "Teddy" (as she now called the so-called make-believe character) wanted to marry her once she turned 16. 

One night when Helen stayed over at Gary's house, she came into his bedroom at three in the morning - accompanied by that weird tall man in the teddy bear suit.

Gary ran out of the room in terror to his parents' bedroom and woke them up. When they went in search of the purported Teddy Bear Man, he was nowhere.

Helen, furious at Gary betraying her secret, demanded to be taken back to her home.

When Helen reached 15, she told Gary her sweetheart Teddy was looking forward to becoming a husband. Gary found himself becoming jealous of the bizarre entity. 

He told Helen to stay over one night, and when she did, she asked Gary if Teddy could show himself.

Gary nodded, and when the unearthly figure appeared in the teenager’s bedroom, Gary went to his wardrobe and produced his father's hunting rifle.

He pointed it at "Teddy" and fired at him at point blank range. The bullet went through the man and embedded itself in the wall.

Teddy vanished. Helen vowed never to speak to Gary again. 

At the age of 20, Gary was engaged to Hattie.

In January 1963, they were shopping in Birkenhead on a foggy afternoon.

As Gary walked along with Hattie, he saw something that chilled him to the bone.

A woman was was crossing the road, coming towards him. Alongside her was a tall man in a teddy bear suit - the weird man he had shot five years ago.

The woman was Helen, now 20, but looking a lot older.

Hattie had not been able to see the sinister figure.

Gary and Hattie later emigrated to Canada.

Helen's fate - and the nature of the "imaginary friend" - remains a mystery.

• Haunted Liverpool 33 is out now on Amazon.​