An urban explorer returned to a former convent and childrens' home, four years after being terrified by its "dark presence."
The first time Elliot Ward visited St Gabriel's on Beaconsfield Road in Woolton, he was disturbed by mysterious voices and witnessed what he described as poltergeist activity. When he summoned up the courage to revisit the place after an interval of around four years, he found it had fallen into a state of serious disrepair with crumbling walls and fire damaged rooms.
The footage he took inside also showed floors caving in, rickety staircases, and - more bizarrely - a pentagram daubed on the floor to ward off evil spirits.
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Elliot, 35, said: "I'd avoided the place for around four years because of the dark presence it holds. The video shows how the building has gone downhill in this time and also the darkness that lays beneath.
"I had been visiting this building for some years as it was a cool local location to get some photography shots, even spending a whole night there till the morning
"Over time I had accumulated a lot of footage from the place. I started to notice a lot of strange voices come up that never come up in any other buildings I had been in.
"Shortly after a lot of negative things started happening around me. I stopped visiting this place for this reason."
Elliot, from Halewood, said the building was now an "absolute wreck" and not really safe as the floors were caving in.
He added: "The pentagram has been in there for about five years. The day we noticed it had been burnt but there didn't seem to be any smoke damage to the room and or any water damage to the room as if it put itself out.
"The graffiti has been there for about the same time too. To me it's one of the most haunted places I know of or visit. The place just has something about it."
Built in 1828, the Grade II listed manor house, then known as Knolle Park, later became St Gabriel's Convent and Knolle Park Children's Home. In February 1998 John Christian, a voluntary worker at St Gabriel's Convent, was jailed for sexually abusing young boys over two decades.
Christian worked at the home, which was run by an order of nuns, and lived at a lodge on the grounds from the late 1960s until 1987. The site has been subject to a number of redevelopment plans over the years including a care village and a residential complex but it still stands empty and abandoned years later. It was severely damaged after a blaze in September 2016.
*Entering a privately owned property/site is considered trespassing which is a civil matter in the UK.. Some sites can be dangerous and could result in injury or fatality
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