Ghosts & Hauntings

BBC's 'Paranormal' explores the case of Britain's last witch

By T.K. Randall
March 28, 2025 ·  2 comments

A portrait of Helen Duncan. Image Credit: Public Domain Duncan, who was born in Callander, Scotland, on November 25th, 1897, maintains the dubious distinction of being the last person to be imprisoned under the 1735 Witchcraft Act.

A practicing medium who would often participate in seances, Duncan was said to have communicated with the spirits of the dead and often produced physical manifestations made of 'ectoplasm'.

In one case during World War II, she claimed to have contacted the spirit of a sailor who had died aboard the HMS Barham. It later transpired that this particular ship had indeed sunk, but that the news had been kept secret as part of an effort to mislead the Germans.

Once word of this got around, Duncan became even more in demand than ever.

That said, there was growing concern among the authorities that her methods were fraudulent.This came to a head in 1944 when she was arrested following a police raid of a seance she was attending. She was imprisoned for several months on the basis that she had been falsely claiming to have produced spirits, which was considered a crime under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

It wasn't long afterward that the act itself was repealed by the government.

In 1956, she was arrested again following yet another raid on a seance and although she was not charged, she died at her home not long afterward.

Some speculated that she had been killed by the impact of ectoplasm snapping back into her body when the light was unexpectedly turned on during the seance, though in reality she had suffered from several health problems that likely contributed to her death.

Paranormal: Britain's Last Witch is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.


Source: Chad.co.uk | Comments (2)

Tags: Witch, Helen Duncan