How the haunting began, Janet couldn’t exactly recall. She knew that she was in bed, in the room she shared with her 10-year-old brother Johnny at a house in Green Street, Enfield, when something strange happened. They became frightened. As soon as they called their Mum, it stopped. “It was a bed shaking, something like that,” said Janet. “I mean, we’re talking 25 years or more, aren’t we? I can’t remember everything. But I can remember the main events because, you know, they leave scars.”

I’d been searching for Janet Hodgson for months. She was at the epicentre of what, depending on who you believe, was either the longest and most witnessed poltergeist case in history, or the greatest paranormal wind-up. I’d been researching a book about the truth of ghosts and had finally tracked her down to Clacton-on-Sea, where I’d convinced her to give her first interview about the events in the north London council house that still provoke fascination today and form the basis of Sky Living’s three part TV dramatisation The Enfield Haunting, and the Hollywood film The Conjuring 2.