'Ghost' follows family home to Gatwick after holiday in France

And the family say the ghost – a little girl with long dark hair and wearing a pink cardigan – is still living with them.

They spoke out this week on the chilling haunting of their modern semi detached home in Horley.

Mum-of-three ‘Carly’, a teaching assistant at a local school who used to work at Gatwick but has not revealed her surname – told how the ghost followed her family home after she and her husband Simon’s wedding in France in 2016.

The scary tale began when a small group of family and friends stayed in one of their favourite spots ‘in the middle of nowhere’ in the Dordogne. At first all was tranquil but an inexplicable series of events began to unfold, said Carly.

One day her daughter Isabelle,11, and nephew Harry, 12, ran back into the house saying they had spotted a little girl with a pink cardigan and long brown hair, lingering around an outhouse on the other side of a nearby stream.

"I went out to take a look but I couldn’t see anyone there,” said Carly. “I kept thinking they were making it up.”

But the children kept reporting sightings – although no-one else saw the little girl.

The eerie tale was first revealed this week via a BBC podcast called ‘Uncanny’ presented by Danny Robins.

In it, Carly told how the night before she and her family were due to return home, they shut all doors and windows upstairs before going into the kitchen for a meal. Suddenly noises began to come through their baby monitor. “It was like someone was in trouble or someone was being really hurt,” said Carly. “It was a heart-wrenching powerful scream.”

Carly’s sister in law then left the kitchen to go to the toilet when she “felt someone screaming in her face. She was absolutely petrified. We all were,” said Carly.

They went upstairs and discovered that all the recently-closed windows, cupboards and wardrobes were inexplicably open again.

They returned home to Horley the following day but it wasn’t the end of the matter. The family sensed a ‘presence.’ And it wasn’t long before Carly experienced a strange phenomenon while in her two-year-old daughter’s room.

"I looked over into the corner of the room and I saw a little girl. Then I realised she was floating. She was floating right above the corner of the room. She had long brown hair and a pink cardigan.”

Carly went to tell husband Simon what she had seen – but he had a chilling tale of his own to tell. “I was watching a film while Carly and the kids were asleep upstairs,” he said. “I heard the floorboard creak behind me, then I got this poke in my back. I looked over my shoulder and there was nobody there.

"I went upstairs and everyone was fast asleep. I just stood there and thought ‘what was that’?”

The whole family now started to see things and decided to name the little girl ‘Nicole.’ “She didn’t seem to like disturbance,” said Carly. On one occasion rice was mysteriously knocked onto the floor and a cupboard blew open and wine glasses flew out. “I just thought ‘Oh my goodness. What is Nicole up to now?” said Carly.

On another occasion, two builders were working on the family’s house, building an extension. They were having a lunch break when they heard lots of noise coming from the kitchen. They thought Carly must have returned early from work but when they went inside, they discovered the kitchen empty but with dust littering the floor with a child’s footprints in it.

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On another day, the family were returning to their Horley house from a shopping trip and a neighbour’s grown-up daughter Ellie saw them through the window while she was having a cup of tea. She watched as Carly and the children went inside while Simon opened the boot to get the shopping. “Next to Simon, she saw a little girl,” said Carly.

Ellie, now a schoolteacher, said: “She was wearing a reddy pinkish jacket or cardigan.”

Carly believes the ghost of ‘Nicole’ followed them home from France. “I think she was on her own and she wanted to go home with us,” said Carly. “She didn’t want to be on her own.

"I think she is still in our house.”