Psychic Suzanne Hadwin knew she had to do something when a little girl cried out for help.

The voice came from the ghost of six-year-old Jessica Ann Hargreaves, murdered in 1908 at what is now the Wheatsheaf pub, in West Boldon.

Suzanne, a medium by profession, had been at the haunted pub for a charity psychic event. She claims the premises had 37 spirits; about eight were children and one was Jessica's murderer Joseph Lawrence.

Suzanne of Witherwack, Sunderland, said: "Jessica was communicating with me. She'd been strangled and raped. He cut her up and trampled on her in the cellar. He tried to get rid of the evidence and threw all her clothes and belongings in a big fireplace.

"When I first heard Jessica, I felt in my heart that I had to help her. I felt so overwhelmed. She was saying: `Please help me, he's hurting me' and was trapped.

"And all the time I was in the pub, her killer was there. He murdered a lot of children and hid their bodies inside. He was a vicious, evil man. The atmosphere made you feel sick and tense. I felt like he was going to go for me at any minute."

Over two weeks, Suzanne said she stayed at the pub nightly and managed to release all the spirits into heaven, including Jessica. But Lawrence had to be forced out.

During the seances, Lana Grabinskis, a spiritual artist, was able to draw sketches of Jessica and Lawrence from Suzanne's descriptions. In some photographs they captured white blobs, which they say are orbs of spirit energy.

According to Suzanne, the pub used to be a stopping place for travellers on their way to Scotland. Lawrence, who had a southern accent and was dressed in grey, was a worker in his early thirties. He may have been a plasterer or miner.

Jessica was a local girl. Her mother was called Kathleen and her father Billy, who ended up killing Joseph Lawrence.

After they purged the pub of the ghosts, they managed to dig up a lock of Jessica's hair, a heel of her shoe and small rags from her clothing.

Suzanne said: "The girl told me her body was in the pub and we tried to search for it in a wall, where the fireplace used to be. That's where we found these items. We want to hand them over to scientists to be analysed and hope a search can be carried out to find her remains".

Staff at the pub say there were a lot of ghostly goings-on before they were released, like chairs and utensils flying around, banging, screaming and the feeling of being pushed or touched by someone who is not there.

Pub manageress Kamylah Momat, who has been there for a year, said: "We found a hand print of a child in some jelly, even though there were no children here. Our heavy industrial fridge was always found open, even though the kitchen door was locked. We just can't explain these things."