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

In this latest tale, a terrifying encounter with an ancient demon ...

THE prolonged mind-numbing boredom of the lockdowns due to that world-disrupting virus sent a lot of people in search of things to do to pass the time.

Whilst some vegetated in front of the box watching the perennial soaps and pointless reality TV shows, others delighted in either reading about or spreading conspiracy theories about the virus and some discussed and tweeted what they perceived as sinister political machinations via social media.

Traditional board games such as Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit made a surprise comeback in the monotonous grey nights and days of the virus curbs, and surprisingly, a sizeable percentage of the lackadaisical in the three lockdowns resorted to dabbling with the supernatural to alleviate the boredom, with people going online to order Tarot cards and those controversial instruments of alleged paranormal communication – Ouija boards.

I've seen militant atheists reduced to gibbering wrecks after arrogantly confronting the upturned glass to try and prove that there's nothing dangerous about the Ouija because there are obviously no such things as spirits.

One atheist said spirits don't exist as they are non-physical – i.e. – make-believe, but I did point out that the part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character – also known as the mind – is non-physical too, as is a radio wave.

Some people can occasionally get away with meddling with the Ouija board, but most of the time, the dabbling - because it involves a group of people acknowledging spirits which are either mischievous or downright bad - will result in the sitters being plagued with all sorts of strange phenomena.

In July 1971, Jon and Sarah, a couple in their twenties from Rock Ferry, went on a long meandering drive out of boredom in the car of a friend named Ralph. Sarah was six months pregnant with Jon's child.

The three of them ended up at West Kirby, where they went to the beach.

Sarah spotted something washed up on the beach, and it turned out to be a long cylindrical piece of wood covered in barnacles.

It had a weird face carved into it which made the wood resemble some Native American totem pole.

An old man on the beach told the trio not to touch the carved pole, which was about five feet in length and two feet in diameter.

The elderly man said the effigy was that of "Saydin" – an ancient demon worshipped thousands of years ago, back when a forest spread from the shoreline of Meols across Liverpool Bay to Formby.

Jon smirked and bent down and his fingers felt the graven face of the strange wooden idol. Ralph stooped down and also touched it, but Sarah thought there was something evil about the eyes of the carving, and she just stood there and shuddered, even though it was a warm July afternoon.

"I don't like the look of it; let’s go," said Sarah, but Jon grabbed her hand and jokingly pulled her downwards and Sarah slipped, landing on her knees in the wet sand and her left hand fell upon the ghastly wooden face.

Straight away, Sarah felt something - a sensation - pass from her left palm and it went up her wrist, into her arm, and seemed to go as far as her bosom.

The sensation scared her, and she was so angry at Jon causing her to touch the carving that she slapped him across the face.

He got up in a huff, left her kneeling there, and went back to Ralph’s car. Ralph helped Sarah up and said: "He didn't mean to cause you to fall," but Sarah suddenly felt nauseous and swore at Ralph. Hardly a word was spoken between the couple as Ralph drove them home.

That evening, Ralph visited the couple's home with his girlfriend Sally, and they brought four bottles of wine to the house in Rock Ferry.

The four of them played cards and went through the bottles of wine until, at 11pm, Sally suggested a Ouija session.

A wineglass was upturned and Ralph chalked the letters of the alphabet in a circle on an old darts blackboard.

Sarah wasn't keen on playing with the Ouija but being tipsy, she eventually joined in the 'fun'.

The name SAYDIN kept coming through, which scared Sarah, as she recalled the old man who had said that the totem carving was a demon of that name. That night as she lay in bed, Sarah heard a voice whispering. "Sarah, I am with you."

She woke Jon up but he could not hear the whispering voice. The phantom voice plagued Sarah for months, and when she was about to go into hospital to have her baby, the voice became louder, and this time Jon heard it too. "Who are you?" a nervous Jon asked, to which the reply came: "I am Saydin from under the sea, mortal man."

"Why are you haunting us? Show yourself!" replied Jon.

"I'm in here," said the voice – and Sarah went cold, because the voice seemed to come from her abdomen, and she felt her baby kick.

Sarah became hysterical.

She told Jon the spirit was in her, and Jon ran to fetch a priest.

While he was gone, Sarah went into labour, and gave birth to something hideous; it looked like a baby, only it had horns, pointed ears and glowing eyes, and Sarah was so terrified she passed out.

When she awoke she was in hospital. She was told she'd given birth to a healthy 8 lb boy.

Sarah went to church every Sunday after that nightmarish experience and never dabbled with the Ouija ever again.

•Tom Slemen’s books and audio books are on Amazon.