A RETIRED paramedic living in deepest France is being haunted by ghostly midnight phone calls from his local rag…the Abergavenny Chronicle.

Den Ginham, 74, has been spooked for the last three months by his telephone in the living room of his retirement home in far-flung Limoges.

Unperturbed Den says his over-active blower rings without fail at the witching hour every night.

And the number bothering him is always the same - one back in the UK at a certain newspaper office in Nevill Street.

Investigations by the French telecom company found no trace of any calls from Abergavenny.

And the Chronicle’s telephone bill does not feature any calls to Den’s home in Hiesse between Limoges and Angouleme some 700 miles away.

Den, who retired across the Channel nine years ago but still has the Chronicle sent out to him every week, revealed that the ringtone is not the same as normal calls.

“It makes a sort of warbling noise,” he told a scribbler at the suspected source of the curious calls which ring into life at exactly 12.05am French time and 11.05pm Abergavenny time.

‘It’s got to the stage now where my wife Jane and I just ignore them. I don’t why this is happening. It’s just crazy” said Den, who added that he frequently heard a gentle sigh uttered at the other end of the line.

The self-confessed psychic admits, “I know my friends laugh at me - but they also know I always tell the truth.”

His problems began when he rang Chronicle editor Liz Davies back in July to ask her about the scary goings-on at the paper which had reported Cwmbran-based ghosthunters filming a spectre on the office’s first floor stairs.

Den wanted to know more as he had extensive knowledge of Nevill Street’s ghoulish reputation for attracting spirits of the dead.

He spoke at length to the editor about his family’s experiences of hauntings in Nevill Street, promising to keep in touch.

What he didn’t expect was to receive a call at around 5.15 that evening which his caller ID informed him was from his former local rag. No one was on the other end.

He rang the following day to ask Liz about the returned call - and she had to tell him no one was in the office at the time - and that’s when the midnight calls started.

Den, who is convinced the calls are being made by a ghost, is satisfied that whoever it is bears him no ill-will.

“They are harmless - not a problem at all. They are just lonely souls,” he suggests.

He has an inkling of who the spirit might be…a telephonist called Marjorie Jackson who, it’s thought, was the is related to local historian Alfred Jackson who ran the ironmongers in Cross Street which is now Boots the Chemist.

Mr Jackson once wrote a column for the Chronicle. But it is his long-dead relation - who has featured regularly in spooky ‘communications’ with the Cwmbran ghosthunters during their vigils at the Chronicle over the years.