Hastings: Owner of ‘cursed’ painting says it’s ‘transfixed’ her mum | UK News

Yet despite her deteriorating health, Zoe claims her mum has become ‘weirdly protective’ over the painting and won’t stop staring at it.

Meanwhile, Jayne admits she feels compelled to try to cheer up the girl and likes ‘stroking her cheek,’ claiming it is her daughter who has felt ‘odd’ about the painting since they got it.

Jayne confessed she has heard knocking in the night despite no one being there – although believes her illnesses were unrelated.

Now Zoe says she’s been forced to keep the painting in a box with sage in a bid to ‘cleanse’ it and hopes for someone to come and lift the curse.

Zoe, from Hastings, East Sussex, said: ‘I’ve never seen my mum want something so much.

‘She was fascinated by it – but not in a positive way.

‘She was weirdly protective over it. She was continually staring at it. She was running her figures over its cheekbones, she polished it even though it didn’t need polishing.

‘Any mention of getting rid of it… she got really snappy.

‘It’s like some family heirloom she’s become protective over. My mum was point blank refusing to get rid of the picture.

‘I guess it is a bit like the power in Lord of the Rings. It’s definitely really enchanting – it kind of draws you into it but then you don’t really want to be near it at the same time.

‘It is almost a bit like Gollum in Lord of the Rings.’

Jayne, a 68-year-old retired office worker, said: ‘I was quite taken with it. I felt like it was a very unhappy young girl and there was something about it you wanted to cheer up.

‘I’ve got a picture in the house of my mum in it and I stroke her cheek and I did the same to the girl because she just seems unhappy.

‘There was something about it that made me want to bring her home and cheer her up.

‘There were a few odd things, someone kept tapping on the door and there was nobody there.

‘I was overheating and not feeling quite right. I personally didn’t put it down to the picture, Zoe did. She felt odd about it ever since it’s been here.’

However Zoe is adamant that her mother’s ill health was thanks to the power of the painting.

Zoe said: ‘My mum was just really shaky. She began coming out in all these really hot sweats and really hot flushes. She normally wears four jumpers a day.

‘She was boiling hot.’

Frantic Zoe rang an ambulance after her mum collapsed in the bathroom, but they eventually cancelled it and she stayed overnight in her flat.

The following days more strange happenings began to occur – with Zoe coming downstairs one morning to find her mum ‘stroking the cheeks’ of the painting.

Zoe said: ‘It was odd behaviour, especially for my mum. She couldn’t remember anything that had happened the night before.

‘My mum is still really odd and vacant and won’t really discuss it.’

Around two weeks later, Zoe and her partner Ben went for a walk about three miles from her home to watch a lightning storm.

As they came out onto the top of the clearing, they saw a ‘big black figure’ standing in front of them.

Zoe said: ‘We both looked at this figure thing and said “what is that” at the same time.

‘He grabbed me and we began running back the way we had come. [Ben] was screaming that it was right behind him.

‘I didn’t clock that it could be anything to do with the picture but then I’ve never ever been chased by a dark figure in a lightning storm.

‘It was the most terrifying experience of both our lives.’

Determined to rid herself of the ‘curse’, Zoe drove back to the charity shop the following morning to return the painting.

However she was shocked to discover a screw in her brand new tyres on arrival.

She warned the charity shop manager to be careful who he sold it to before walking out the store.