http://www.london24.com/news/ghost_hunters_tell_george_michael_his_highgate_home_may_be_haunted_1_1352759

Ghost hunters tell George Michael his Highgate home may be haunted

Kate Ferguson, ReporterThursday, April 19, 2012 
12:10 PM

Music legend George Michael was left a little spooked when he met a pair of ghosthunters probing the paranormal outside his Highgate townhouse.

Mickey Gocool (right) and Louise Roche in their North London Paranormal Investigations t-shirts. Picture: Nigel Sutton

The pair of self-styled paranormal investigators were touring the historic village when they bumped into the singer and revealed that spirits are likely to dwell within his home.

Ghosthunter Mickey Gocool, who has been investigating spirits from the other side for more than a decade, said: "Highgate has one of the highest levels of paranormal activity in the country and George Michael's home is precisely the kind of historic house that might have activity.

"Although there is no real knowing from the outside whether a house has a lot of paranormal activity, but from my experience I can get a sense of things.

"Everyone feels it, you walk into a room and it is a bit spooky, you hair stands on end, that is what it is like sensing a spirit."

Mr Gocool, 46, a former showbiz chauffeur who worked with R&B singer Lemar, and his partner Louise Roche, 23, were combing Highgate's streets to delve deeper into the legends of ghosts, vampires and mysterious spirits that have emerged there.

Chilling apparitions have been cited at The Gatehouse pub in North Road, where a tall black-cloaked figure with ghastly features is said to wander the darkened corridors by night.

Legend has it that a barmaid resigned in terror after claiming to have felt an overbearing presence which tried to strangle her when she was alone cleaning up.

Clad in a black uniform and brandishing an array of high-tech voice recording and film devices designed to catch elusive ghosts, Mr Gocool revealed he is planning a late night vigil at the pub to snare the spirits.

But it is at Witanhurst, a nearby 65-room Georgian style mansion, where the father-of-two first sensed the presence of a ghouls lurking within Highgate.

He was working as a chauffeur on the hit TV show Fame Academy, filmed at the mansion in 2002, when he felt the presence of domestic servants watching him.

"The spirits were very watchful, very protective and very proud of the building," he said. "They didn't interact with us, they stood absolutely still."

But he has cautionary words for the anonymous owner currently restoring the mansion.

"Spirits can be upset by a change in the environment they live in," he said.

"When a new owner comes along and decides to build a swimming pool in the bottom of an 18th Century home, they upset the spirits who live within."