A pub boss has called in ghostbusters after barmaids complained their bums were being pinched - by a randy poltergeist.

The phantom menace has been terrorising staff at the Castleview in Dundonald, Ayrshire, near the village's haunted castle.

Waitress Tiffany Luxton, 18, said: 'I won't even go to the toilet on my own because I'm scared he'll be there.

'It's as if you're being stalked. You feel him brushing past you and touching you. It's really quite scary. You can hear footsteps but there is nobody there.'

Fed-up pub boss Terry Quinn says the only spirits he wants are the usual whisky, gin and vodka. He has called in the team of paranormal investigators who carried out a study at Dundonald Castle.

Terry, 49 said: 'I'm not normally a believer in ghost stuff but there have been so many strange things happening here I'm convinced we are haunted.

'Waitresses and barmaids have felt themselves being touched up and when they look round no one is there and staff in the kitchen heard noises and footsteps. They thought there was an intruder but when I ran in no one was there.

'Twelve huge water jugs sitting on a solid wooden gantry all flew off the shelf at once and smashed and the CO2 that powers the beer lines just turns itself off. What's going on is a mystery.

'Even I get a shiver when I go down to the cellar these days because you're half expecting to see something down there with you.'

The Dunfermline Paranormal Research Fellowship, who say they found evidence that Dundonald Castle is haunted, will examine the pub in the New Year.

Team leader Raymond Crannage said: 'According to staff at the Castleview things are worse since alterations were made to the inside of the pub.

'I think this presence could possibly be that of a former owner.'

• Story by Billy Paterson, taken from Sunday Mail, 12 December 2004.