A TEENAGER who lives at one of Britain's most haunted pubs has caught what he believes to be the ghost of a murdered girl on camera, reports Lisa Frascarelli.

Luke Fallowfield, 14, was locked in a disused room at the Kirkstone Pass Inn and is convinced he has captured the otherworldly outlines of a young girl on his mobile phone.

The teenager has been so spooked by the experience that he is refusing to stay at the pub where he normally lives with his mum Carol and has been staying with his dad in Windermere.

"We were messing around and my mum and some other people shut me in there," explained Luke. "I heard heavy breathing near my ears. I was scared it's really horrible up there so I used the light on my phone to try and get out.

"When I got back downstairs I realised I'd been videoing. I watched it and I saw a girl with a light behind her but there's no light up there at night it's totally dark."

The teenager handed his eerie evidence over to The Westmorland Gazette and can be heard during the ten-second footage repeatedly screaming "Let me out." Halfway through the film a light appears in the corner of the pitch-black room and the silhouette of what appears to be a girl can be seen for a few seconds before the light and the silhouette both disappear.

The Lakes School pupil who was visibly shaken by his encounter told the Gazette: "I don't really believe in stuff like this but I'm sure it's a ghost. I won't go up there again because I'm so scared. I've been staying with my dad since it happened."

Since Luke's brush with the paranormal several guests claim to have seen the ghostly girl. One couple recently wrote in the guest book: "Was my fiance dreaming or was that little girl standing at the end of our bed a ghost?"

The pub is renowned as a regular haunt for deceased landlords, perished walkers and also the ghost of a woman who was hanged from the pub's hanging tree for killing her daughter.

"We think the ghost could be the little girl who was murdered," said Luke's mum Carol. "Some ghost hunters who came here a few weeks ago also picked up on a little girl and her mum."

Medium and author of Ghosthunters Guidebook Paul Sandbach said he had felt the presence of a young girl and her mother on a recent trip to the pub with his Ghost Haunted investigation team.

"A young child was definitely trying to make contact with the team," he said.

The inn's resident ghouls have made the pub something of a Mecca for ghost hunters in recent years. Long-term lodgers at the Inn include former barman Neville who is said to linger in Room 2, Ruth Ray, a woman who died during a blizzard, and a coachman dressed in 17th century clothing who mysteriously appeared in a photograph taken in front of the pub in 1993.

l The Kirkstone Pass Inn was also visited by a group of ghosthunters who are featured in this week's paper after spend-ing time in some of South Lakeland's most haunted pubs.