Murderer Anthony Ruark was fingered from beyond the grave — by the avenging spirit of his victim Jackie Poole.

Jackie's ghost gave stunned police the name of her killer in a macabre late-night interview conducted through a clairvoyant.

Hardened sceptical detectives were so convinced by medium Christine Holohan that they arrested Ruark — only to release him for lack of proof.

But on Friday, 18 years on, evil Ruark, 40, was jailed for life at the Old Bailey — after the world of forensic science finally caught up with her deadly accurate psychic evidence.

The clincher was fragments of skin found under barmaid Jackie's nails matching Ruark's DNA profile.

Last night Christine, 44, recalled the spooky moment victim Jackie came into her life, just days after being slaughtered in Ruislip, west London:

"I lived in the area and had read about the murder in the papers. Then one night I woke up to find my bed shaking and the lights flickering.

"I thought: "Oh my God!" then looked up and saw this blonde woman staring at me, tearing at my sheets in panic.

"Instantly I knew it was Jackie and she told me what had happened. Over the next few weeks she kept coming. She couldn't rest until her killer was caught. I had to contact the police.

"You could see at first they didn't believe me but then they realised all the information I was giving about the crime was right.

"At one meeting I went into a trance and let Jackie take over my body. When the police asked for the name of the killer my hand wrote the word "Pokie". It meant nothing to me — but that was Ruark's nickname.

"Then Jackie relived the whole scene of the murder and showed me what happened. It was utterly terrifying, watching through her eyes as this man strangled her.

"I saw his hands go round her throat and pull the cord tight.

"Jackie kept on showing me sort of freeze-frame pictures of the scene and all I could do was write it down, pass it on and hope they'd catch him."

One of the detectives present that night, Tony Batters, admits he was astonished. He had been the first cop on the murder scene at Jackie's flat and realised Christine's information was spot-on.

"She decribed everything much as I found it," said Tony, now retired. "She knew the victim's position, some of her injuries and clothing.

"She even knew that in the course of robbing Jackie, the killer had left two of her rings — they would not come off.

"In fact some of Christine's information was unknown to anyone at the time — except the murderer and the victim! When we asked for information about the killer Christine described him in great detail, his age and month of birth, height, skin and hair colouring, tattoos, the type of work he did and mentioned his criminal history.

"She said the victim knew the killer and warned that friends would provide him with an alibi — all now proved right.

"And when her hand wrote the name Pokie it was absolutely spine-chilling. We'd already interviewed Ruark but at that moment I knew we'd got our man."

Christine, 41, who now lives in Ireland, admitted: "I haven't been the same since it all happened.

"I still do my psychic sessions but I never let anyone get as close as I did with Jackie. I could never go through that again. It still haunts me.

"But I'm so pleased they finally got that man Pokie. Now I'm going to put some flowers on Jackie's grave — and I know she will be in peace."

• Story originally published by:
News of the World, London / England | James Millbank - Aug 26.01

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