The festive season is almost upon us, and for many of us this means a well-deserved break! As the calendar wraps up and the holidays beckon, why not give your criminological mind a holiday, too? It’s the perfect opportunity to let your imagination soar and dive headfirst into the thrilling world of paranormal fiction.

Taking a temporary step away from cold, hard facts allows us to explore narratives that defy easy explanation, using different parts of our investigative minds. This shift from reality to the realm of the supernatural can be a refreshing break and a wonderful way to recharge before heading into a new year. 

This year, something spooky happened! The core mission of the Kids’ Criminology Club, which focuses on expanding knowledge, logic, deduction, and evidence, was temporarily suspended. For a one-off Halloween-esque special, the club transformed into the Kids Paranormal Club.

I am a senior lecturer in Law with a keen interest in the paranormal, and I took our young investigators on a journey into the inexplicable. Together, we explored theories such as the Stone Tape Theory and shared accounts of supernatural phenomena. Following our fascinating session, I challenged the kids to channel their inner storytellers and enter a paranormal story writing competition, with a strict limit of no more than 500 words. The results were chilling, creative, and certainly a departure from Criminology and the Law! All entries, including the winning entry, can be found below. 

As you settle in for your holiday break, we hope you’ll find inspiration in these young authors’ terrifying tales. Whether you’re investigating a fictional haunting or simply enjoying a peaceful evening, remember to let your mind wander beyond the police tape and evidence markers. Enjoy the comfort and quiet, and maybe keep an ear out for any strange sounds in your own home…

And finally, while you’re enjoying the comfort and safety of the season and your well-earned break from reality, spare a thought for those who may be facing their own real-life terrors, or simply without the security, warmth, company and peace we often take for granted at Christmas time.

🏆 The Winning Stories 

Here are those standout entries that captured our imaginations and sent shivers down our spines.

🥇 Winner: The Radio in Number 13 by Paisley G., age 10

9th October 1967 11:00 pm I have been prompted to start this journal because of an experience I have had in which I don’t feel safe, so I am creating this just in case. My first experience was at night. I was listening to the radio like I always do before bed, there was some show on, I wasn’t really listening; I never really listen, it was just something to do, I suppose. I’m sitting at my desk when I hear footsteps. I live alone and don’t have any pets, that’s when I realised the voices had stopped with a shocking realisation. I knew that the footsteps were coming from the radio. It sounded like heavy boots on stone. I live in a large house with a stone road leading up to the front door. There was a static noise and then the voices were back. I was unsettled but didn’t think much about it. My wife had died only a couple of weeks ago, and I had an odd feeling that they were connected somehow. She was a lovely woman,n and she used to always wear a pair of big black boots.

10th October 1967 11:00 pm Slept uneasy last night – I had a nagging feeling of not being alone. I went about my usual business as normal and had the same experience again: same time, same show, same footsteps.

11th October 1967 11:00 pm Uneasy sleeping again. In the morning, when I left my house, I saw my neighbour Lucy. She is usually a lovely old lady, but when I walked past he house, she ran outside and grabbed me by the hands, looked right into my eyes and said ‘Don’t do it! Don’t open the door! They’re coming!’ Then she ran back inside. It was unsettling, but again didn’t think much of it. The noises were different tonight, footsteps and again they stopped, and I thought the talking would start again, but no, not yet there was the sound of knocking on a door, then it cut back to the show.

12th October 1967 11:00 pm Decided to test it tonight I don’t know what made me do it, but I left the front door open, brought the radio down and sat on a chair by the door. The old lady’s words were ringing in my head, but I had a weird feeling of wanting to prove her wrong. I turned on the radio there was more knocking th-

3:41 am I woke up in my bed, confused about what happened. I ran downstairs to check the door, but it was closed, the chair back in its place, the radio on my desk, as if it had never happened.

13th October 1967 I just turned on the radio the footsteps were going upstairs. They stopped, then the sound of a door rattling my my my door is being shaken help help please pleas ple-

Note from the doctor: The subject had no apparent injuries; they just… died.

Note from the builder: The walls have a trace of a type of mould that could lead to possible madness.

Ghost Mary by Riddhi P., age 11

Fourteen-year-old Isabel Smith and her best friend Anna Hazel live in Riverbend town. Isabel’s twin sister Mary had died two years ago from mysterious reasons, but when Isabel and Anna begin getting chilling messages from her, they find out, she had been taken by wicked blood ghosts that can only take souls on the Day of the Dead! The girls discover a book that says they may be able to bring Mary back by going to the ghost underworld. Desperate, the girls decide to do a ritual that can teleport them to the ghost world! They lit one hundred candles in a perfect circle,e and they both sat in the middle and whispered the forbidden words. When Isabel opened her eyes, she wasn’t in her room anymore; she was in a dark, gloomy place that looked like a graveyard. Fog pressed her skin, whispering, never lifting. Isabel and Anna looked around when Isabel froze. Her heart stopped! Mary was standing just a couple of feet away from them! Mary’s face looked white, her eyes were a pit of black, her clothes were torn and filthy, a black mist surrounded her body. Mary opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, the girls grabbed her hand and pulled her in the circle of candles. “We have to chant the forbidden words backwards fifteen times,” they told her. They began chanting the words once, twice, three times…. “Wait! We have to get the book and burn it, or the blood ghosts will be able to take me and many others again,” cried Mary. Anna dashed to grab the book, but in the shadows, she saw something terrifying – the blood ghosts! Their hollow eyes oozing blood staring at her, their skeleton hands reaching out trying to catch her. Anna grabbed the book and ran towards the circle where Isabel’s voice trembled as she started to chant the words for the tenth time. “Quick, burn the book!” yelled Mary. Just then, the blood ghosts lunged at them and grabbed Mary’s arm. Mary screamed; they were pulling her away from them! Isabel quickly grabbed Mary and dragged her back into the circle. As soon as she did, Anna threw the book in the flames. There was a gust of wind, a ball of energy cloaked the circle of candles like a shield, and the blood ghosts screamed in agony, fading to dust. Isabel finished chanting, the world flippe,d and they were back in Isabel’s room. “What just happened?” Whispered Mary. “It’s over. We’re home!” answered Isabel. They hugged. No more blood ghosts, underworlds or magic words. They were safe. Or were they?.

The Towers of Terror by Quinn G., age 12

Welcome to the Towers of Terror annual story release. Ok, I’m hoping you know what the stone tape theory is. If not, here is a quick rundown: basically, it is the theory that buildings or places have a memory and can replay it, hence ghosts. But what happens at sea? Well, I can tell you that they go to the nearest lighthouse house which then replays them through its beam, and it’s my job to tell the world the stories of wrecked ships, crashed planes and fallen sailors.

Southwold Lighthouse, Norfolk 31/10/2020 Keeper John 12:30 am I’m in for a night tonight with it being Halloween and all. 6:00 pm, just some light activity, a couple of fishing boats, S.S.Mary, an unnamed skipper, a rowboat and a cliff jumper who didn’t want to come to the surface. 7:00 pm, it’s weird that the projections have just stopped. 7:30 pm still nothing. Wait! It is back. No. It’s me, I’m on shore – wait – I’m crumpling to the ground, there is a figure behi-

That’s where his lighthouse log ends, when his colleague went up to take over and found him dead with his pen still clutched in his hand. It is not unusual for things to creep out of the projections. That is why he was there in the first place, to monitor the lighthouse. Even though it is not in operation for ships, you can’t have all those stories building up in such a small space because they will find a way out. But what happened that night was different. Never before has one of the projections interacted with the world outside the projections. There are several other accounts that all go the same way: projections stop, they start again, you see yourself crumble to the floor, and … dead, so we can’t just have people dropping like flies, someone will notice! But if we leave them unattended, they will cause more destruction. So, what would you do? Well, I will tell you what I did/am doing. Finding what came out and how to stop it from coming out again.

That was 5 years ago, and now I can bring you up to date: The entity that was coming out of the projections is now known as the Siren Reaper of the drowned and lost and cannot be explained away. Believe me, I’ve tried, but to no avail. Now to get on to the solution: the one thing that connects the deaths of those keepers was that they had all had a connection with the se, old captains, anglers, sea goers and other jobs that are to do with the sea. After years of contemplation, I have a theory. I think that the Reaper has killed these people because it thinks that they have escaped from it. The solution is to make the keepers not connected with the sea, because then the Reaper will have no business with them. But this does not explain why the projections just stop beforehand, or why the Reaper shows them their death….