The Cardiff Poltergeist

In April 1979, a small petshop in the Whitchurch area of Cardiff, Wales, became the center of intense poltergeist activity. The owner, John Matthews, and his assistant witnessed objects flying through the air, cages moving on their own, and stones materializing inside the locked shop. Police officers and television crews who investigated experienced the phenomena firsthand.

The Shop

John Matthews operated a small petshop selling aquarium fish, birds, and small animals. His young assistant, Paul, worked with him daily. The shop was modest, filled with tanks and cages, an unlikely setting for one of Britain’s best-witnessed poltergeist cases.

The activity began suddenly in early April 1979. Pet food tins flew off shelves. Water splashed from tanks with no apparent cause. Stones appeared inside the locked shop, falling from nowhere.

Police Investigation

When Matthews reported the disturbances, Cardiff police sent officers to investigate. What they witnessed convinced them that something genuinely unusual was occurring.

Police Constable Jeff Howard reported seeing a heavy wooden shelf fly across the shop. Other officers witnessed stones materializing inside the building and objects moving without apparent cause.

The police could not explain what they observed. They found no evidence of fraud, no hidden mechanisms, and no way to reproduce the effects.

Media Coverage

Television crews from BBC Wales visited the shop and captured footage of objects moving. Their presence seemed to intensify rather than inhibit the activity.

The case made national news. Parapsychologists arrived to investigate. The shop became a destination for the curious and the skeptical.

The Focus

As in many poltergeist cases, the activity seemed connected to a specific person—in this case, the teenage assistant Paul. When Paul was present, phenomena occurred. When he was absent, the shop was quiet.

Paul denied any involvement in producing the effects. Investigators found no evidence of trickery but could not determine what was causing the disturbances.

Resolution

The activity declined over several weeks and eventually ceased entirely. Paul left the shop, and John Matthews returned to normal business operations.

The case remained unexplained. Those who had witnessed it, including police officers with no stake in the paranormal, maintained that they had seen something that defied normal explanation.

Assessment

The Cardiff poltergeist is significant for the quality of its witnesses. Police officers are trained observers, generally skeptical and experienced in detecting fraud. That multiple officers witnessed dramatic phenomena and could not explain them lends the case credibility.

The pattern of activity centering on a teenager fits poltergeist theory, whether one interprets that as evidence for psychokinesis or for teenage pranks too clever to be detected.

Whatever caused the disturbances at that Cardiff petshop, it left witnesses shaken and convinced that they had encountered something beyond ordinary experience.