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

In this week's tale, Tim and Sarah's terrifying encounter with a ghostly family.

IN November 1985, a 45-year-old Liscard divorcee named Tim moved into a house in Birkenhead, along with 14-year-old daughter Sarah.

Tim had left wife Irene because of her heavy drinking and numerous affairs and Sarah had opted to live with him. Father and daughter got on really well and it was like a holiday as they settled into the new house without Irene carrying on in a drunken state and arguing and fighting all the time - but it soon became obvious there was something 'odd' about Tim and Sarah's new home.

Days after moving in, Tim and Sarah watched a TV show they both enjoyed and its premise really resonated with them because it was about a widower struggling to bring up his teenage daughter. The show was called Me & My Girl, and starred Richard O’Sullivan as the widower. Tim and Sarah were enjoying the show, which started at around 8:30pm, and after about ten minutes, Tim said, "Did you hear that?" and lowered the volume on the telly with the remote.

"Hear what?" Sarah asked. "Sounded like kids screaming," answered her father, and then they both heard a child screaming, but they couldn't tell what sex it was, but the sound seemed to come from upstairs. Tim got up off the sofa and went up the stairs.

He checked his own bedroom, then Sarah's, then looked in the spare bedroom but there was no one about. There was then another scream, and it was definitely a young child's cry, and it had an eerie echoing quality about it. Sarah yelped when she heard the sound, as she was standing behind her father and it seemed to come from nearby.

Seeing how scared his daughter was, Tim remarked: "They say sound plays funny tricks at night; it travels further and that. I think the neighbour's got his telly on too loud."

"That was no sound from a telly, dad", decided Sarah, "I think it was a ghost."

"There's no such thing as ghosts," said Tim, followed by a forced chuckle.

"I'm telling you, it's been the noise from the telly next door. These walls are paper thin."

When Tim and Sarah returned to the living room, they received quite a shock, because the TV was upside down. Someone, or something had turned a heavy 28-inch television set upside down and placed it back on its table. Tim struggled to come up with an explanation to allay Sarah’s fears, as he could see she looked terrified. He didn't know what to say.

"Dad, maybe we should go and stay with Nan," said Sarah with a faltering voice. Her dad switched off the TV set, and with some difficulty picked it up and put it back on the table the right way up. He then went to the front door and examined the Yale lock to see if the catch was still on. It was; no one had come in to play some prank, and even if they had a key they could not have gained access with the catch on.

Tim and Sarah tried to watch the rest of Me & My Girl but they just couldn’t get into it because of the spooky goings-on. Tim let his daughter sleep with him in his bed that night and she kept jumping every time she heard the creaks and cracks of the house settling down. On the following night, Sarah assured her dad she'd be okay sleeping in her own bed and she and her father stayed up till almost 2am playing Scrabble. Sarah stuffed herself with sweets and fizzy drinks as she talked about a boy in school she liked.

When Sarah finally did get to bed, she left the bedside lamp on and covered her head with the quilt. She then heard the distinctive sound of breathing in the room. She froze and said a silent prayer. She waited and waited, hoping the presence would go, but felt someone sit on the mattress near her feet. She closed her eyes tightly and pretended she was asleep.

"I know you're awake, Sarah," said a well-to-do voice she had never heard before, and the girl's heart pounded.

"In her mind she counted to three, and then she fled from her bed, left the bedroom, and ran into her dad's room. Tim was on his back, snoring, and Sarah shook him awake.

"Dad! There’s a man in my room!" she yelled, and Tim immediately got out the bed and said to Sarah, "Stay there!" and ran into his daughter's room, but saw no one. About a minute later, Tim and Sarah heard children's screams; they were coming from Sarah's room. Tim went in there, and recoiled with fright.

On the wall were the shadows of a number of children hanging upside down, and they seemed to be suspended by ropes that went from their ankles to the ceiling. The shadow of a man then came into view with either a stick or a poker in his hand, and he began thrashing the children with it.

Sarah could see the shadows of the blood spray out from the strikes of the instrument against the heads of the children, and she almost fainted. "No, father!" screamed one of the ghostly children, "Why are you hurting me?" shrieked another.

Within minutes, Tim had taken Sarah to the car and sat there, trembling, lost for words. He drove to his mother's house. All the way there, Sarah sobbed and said: "I'm not going back!" over and over.

Tim and Sarah ended up moving to a house in Rock Ferry. I hear the house in question still has 'problems', and I think someone who once lived there got away with murdering his children a long time ago.

•All of Tom Slemen’s books and audiobooks are on Amazon.