A mother-of-two has been left terrified and unable to sleep after a ghostly child appeared in a picture she took of her son playing in the woods.
Laura Watson claims the a small child can be seen with his hand on her son’s shoulder in the creepy image.
The family had been enjoying a picnic at the Plessey Woods Park in Northumberland, England last weekend when Laura took some pictures of her daughter Charlotte Hill, 15, and son Byrin Watson, nine, climbing a tree with their cousin Jack, 16.
However, medical receptionist Laura was left “terrified” when she later discovered the face of another child had appeared behind Byrin, despite no one else being near them in the park at the time.
While originally sceptical of anything to do with ghosts and the paranormal, Laura says the picture has changed her mind as the boy is so clear. She now wants to return to the woods as the figure has sparked her interest in ghosts but admits she hopes the apparition doesn’t “follow them home”.
Laura, from Newcastle, said: “It’s very unusual and everyone is really freaked out. Me and my daughter couldn’t even go to sleep last night because we were so scared.
“My husband is on night shifts and I was alone and I was like ‘oh God’. I was terrified in case anything had followed us back.
“I’ve had people on our Facebook saying they are going to send me prayers. I didn’t believe in anything like that until I saw this for myself.”
Laura along with her two children and her niece and nephew decided to walk the dogs after finishing their picnic. On the way back the youngsters came across the large tree and began to climb it – prompting Laura to get out her camera.
Laura said: “There was no one behind the tree, my daughter or my nephew would have seen them. There was nobody there. There was only us there. It’s very, very bizarre.
“When I got home I put the picture on the computer and when it zoomed in and I was able to see it closer, I thought what is that thing behind Byrin?
“When I zoomed in further I could see a face. But I was like ‘but there was nobody there!’
“It looks like a child to me, I don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy. But I can see this face and it looks like the hand is on my son’s shoulder, which is very bizarre.
“Some people have said I must have Photoshopped it as they can’t believe it. But I’ve explained that I wouldn’t even have a clue how to do anything like that. It was literally taken on a phone. I’m rubbish with technology and I’m just not the kind of person to do that.
“There’s no way that is anything but what it is – you can basically see a face. For someone to be that close to my son, if it was another child, he would have noticed them. I would have seen them and I wouldn’t have taken a picture with another kid behind him.”
Many have speculated what the figure could be with some suggesting it might be the spirit of a boy who drowned in the woods years ago.
Laura said: “I don’t know much about the history of the woods but some people are saying that many moons ago a young boy drowned in the river. You don’t know if it’s just hearsay.
“People are asking if Byrin had a twin and if he died but he had nothing like that. I’ve not had any kids die in my family so it couldn’t be anyone that I know.
“It certainly isn’t something that I’m familiar with. I’ve never, ever experienced anything like it in my life. It was just a normal day. It was lovely hot day and we were just having fun.
“We had the dogs with us and they were not acting strange or anything like that, because I know dogs can have a sixth sense. But they were normal.
“No one was any the wiser that anything was actually there until I saw the picture. I sent it to my husband as he was at work and he said it was very freaky.
“My sister said ‘oh my god, Laura, what on earth is that?’ She agreed there was nobody else around us so it literally couldn’t have been anything else.
“A lot of people say it looks like a girl with pigtails but it doesn’t to me, it looks like a boy. That’s what it looks like to me.
“I would love to go back to the woods, it’s not put me off at all. I think it’s dead fascinating now. Obviously I just hoped it’s not hanging around us as I don’t want that feeling that something is with us.”
