From surviving a terrifying childhood haunting to documenting spirits across the UK, Daryl Paranormal is on a mission to uncover what lies beyond
For most paranormal investigators, the path begins with curiosity. For Daryl Evans (aka Daryl Paranormal), it began with terror.
As a child growing up in Ramsgate, Kent, young Daryl had a close friend, who lived in a house that seemed alive with violent energy. They were alone in the friend’s house one day, when the friend decided to provoke whatever spirits might be there. What followed has stayed with Daryl for life.
Lights flickered. Doors slammed. The atmosphere in the house shifted from playful mischief to something darker, something threatening.
When the boys tried to retreat upstairs, the house itself seemed to fight back. His friend managed to get into his bedroom before the door slammed shut behind him. Daryl, left stranded on the landing, ran for the stairs.
“I went to skip a majority of the stairs just to get down faster,” he remembers, “to get pushed by something in the process. I fell down the stairs. Obviously got up in shock, looked up the stairs to see a black shadow. And I went out the front door.”
The family eventually called in a priest — a higher-ranking cleric brought in from outside the parish. Whatever rituals were carried out, they were enough to bring the disturbances under control.
But the incident left a deep impression. “That’s probably the scariest moment in my life,” he admits.
Read more about this incident in our Spooky Kent article on this Ramsgate poltergeist case.
From curiosity to documentation
It wasn’t until 2017, decades later, that Daryl decided to turn fascination into practice. He had always been aware of strange noises and sensations, but something shifted that year. He wanted not just to experience, but to record.
“I want to document what I capture,” he explains. Since then, under the banner of Daryl Paranormal, he has investigated between 40 and 50 locations across Britain.
Sometimes he joins events and teams, but more often he prefers to work alone, camera in hand, free to follow his instincts.
One of his earliest investigations as an adult took place at Margate’s Royal Theatre, long before its closure. In the basement, he joined hands with other visitors in a circle and felt unseen forces lift their arms skywards.
Later, he watched in disbelief as a heavy wooden table tipped and moved up six flights of steps to the stage. “I checked it twice,” he insists, “no wires, nothing.”
Another favourite site was Antwerp Mansion in Manchester. Once a hub for raves and counterculture, the building carries a darker, more complex history.
Investigating there with a cameraman, Daryl felt what he describes as a split atmosphere: oppressive, almost menacing energy in the basement, but a strangely lighter presence upstairs.
Walking through the building, he says, was like “moving between dimensions.”
Perhaps most unusual are the occasions when Daryl claims to have spoken to people who were not really there. On at least seven occasions, he says, strangers have approached him in the street to talk — only to vanish seconds later.
“It was pretty trippy,” he says. “They couldn’t have run off or gone anywhere that quickly.”
Such moments blur the line between everyday life and the paranormal — a theme that runs through much of his work.
A documentarian’s approach
Unlike some ghost hunters, Daryl doesn’t see himself as a performer. He describes himself as a “documentarian”, intent on recording experiences as they happen.
That dedication hasn’t come without frustration. He claims several of his most convincing photos and videos have been mysteriously corrupted before he could share them.
Even so, he remains committed. For him, the goal is not personal fame but genuine discovery.
“I just want to be seen as one of the real ones,” he says, “the ones that do it for the passion.”
The search continues
After eight years in the field, Daryl is convinced the mystery cannot yet be solved.
“Me doing this for eight years still hasn’t understood, and I think anyone you speak to hasn’t got an understanding still. I don’t think you will understand until you physically, you know, pass over yourself.”
Until then, he’ll keep investigating — in theatres, in mansions, in quiet streets where the dead sometimes stop to talk.
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