Derek Acorah

From SkepticWiki

Acorah features as a medium in "Most Haunted", a TV investigative series notable for its theatricality, sensationalism and lack of skepticism. The show consistently highlights minor evidence, especially the anectodal variety, and ignores obvious faults in their claims. Despite its dubious and activist nature, the show is wildly popular and has a spinoff show ("Most Haunted LIVE") in which viewer interaction is important.

Unfortunately for Acorah's reputation as a psychic, efforts to expose his paranormal abilities have proved embarrassingly easy. On the 28th of October 2005 Dr. Ciaran O'Keeffe, the show's resident parapsychologist, launched an attack on Acorah in the UK's Mirror newspaper after executing a number of plans to see if Acorah was deliberately deceiving the public.

While on a shoot at Bodmin gaol, Dr. O'Keeffe invented a long-dead South African jailer called Kreed Kafer - an anagram of Derek Faker. He wrote the name down and asked another member of the crew to mention it to Acorah before filming.

Dr. O'Keeffe wrote: "I honestly didn't think Derek would take the bait. But during the filming he actually got possessed by my fictional character!"

On the next shoot at Prideaux Place, Cornwall, Ciaran made up another fictional character, highwayman Rik Eedles - an anagram of Derek Lies. Sure enough, Acorah made contact with the dead outlaw. On another occasion, he was 'fed' yet another name - Ged Harken - formed from the letters of Hang Derek.

Ciaran concluded: "In my professional opinion we're not dealing with a genuine medium. "