A WHISKY-drinking, book-loving ghost dubbed Sid is creating some supernatural stress for Linda Goddard-Young and her family.

The Scotch-swigging spirit has a penchant for appearing just from the waist down and stealing books left around their house in Pottery Lane, York.

The family have been plagued by the spectre for the past five years and called in a clairvoyant to help calm his troubled presence.

Now they have embarked on some serious research to find out more about their other-worldly visitor, who they have nicknamed Sid.

"We had a local clairvoyant in, and before we'd told her anything about Sid, she said she could feel the presence," said Linda.

"He's usually in the kitchen, which is where she detected him. She believes he was a builder, who hanged himself in what used to be an outdoor toilet.

"She believes it was over the failure of his marriage, but she can't say when it was."

The clairvoyant also belived he had a 'Celtic aura', suggesting he might have been an Irish expatriate.

Linda's first encounter with Sid came when she opened the kitchen door to be greeted by the sight of half a man.

When he appears in full, Sid wears an "orangey-brown fisherman's jumper", and looks haggard and pained.

Linda says she is not psychic, and that her husband, Eric, and son, Alon, have also felt Sid's presence.

The family often notice books going missing, and after a few days, find them right back where they should have been in the first place.

Bottles of whisky have been known to empty overnight.

"My husband likes a glass of whisky - but not that much," said Linda.

The clairvoyant's visit seemed to upset Sid, as Linda recalls an "evil" atmosphere descending over their house afterwards.

She enlisted a local vicar to bless the house.

"The blessing seems to have sorted him out. I've felt his presence but I haven't seen him since," she said.