Hucknall 'set for life' winners enjoy 'spooktacular' Hallowe'en National Lottery-style

With their new-found wealth and freedom, part time paranormal investigators Laura Hoyle and Kirk Stevens treated themselves and hired one of the UK’s most haunted locations to explore the afterlife.

The couple hired Nottingham’s National Justice Museum just before Halloween.

Voted the most haunted site in the UK by TV programme Most Haunted, it is well known for paranormal activity.

For hundreds of years the site was a courtroom, prison, and police station where individuals could be arrested, tried, sentenced and even executed.

Riddled with mediaeval dungeons, prison cells and court rooms including the exercise yard where executions took place, it is home to some of Nottinghamshire’s most gruesome stories.

The spirit-searching couple, armed with night vision cameras for the occasion, spent time in the former courtroom, various cells and even had special access to the Sheriff’s Dungeon which is closed to the general public.

Kirk, 37, said: “I never thought that one day we’d be able to do something like this, it was a dream come true.

"We would never have been able to enjoy an event like this before the win.

"Ask any paranormal investigator what their dream is, and they’d say good equipment and to have access to all areas to a venue like the Justice Museum.

"And we had the invaluable knowledge of the museum’s head interpreter Stephen Dennis with us at every point.”

The couple captured their visit on the new specialist cameras purchased since the win and you can watch the video here.

Laura, 39, said, “We experienced a lot.

"In the courtroom, we had more activity in just that one place than we normally have on any visit.

"We also heard footsteps above us while in the Sheriff’s Dungeon even though we were metres below the surface sandwiched by sandstone.”

Stephen Dennis said the museum, which has had more than £5 million worth of National Lottery funding over the last decade, is a mecca for ghost hunters.

He continued: “We’ve had multiple ghost sightings from hunters plus our own staff.

"We have cold spots, visitors claim to have heard voices, staff claim to have seen shadowy figures and some believe they have encountered spirits.”

Kirk added: “Whether you believe in ghosts or not this whole experience is because of our win and now we have done it, we have the realisation that having this Set For Life win will afford us so many future opportunities, not just with paranormal investigation, but with all our hobbies.”

When the couple found out they had won, Laura was able to immediately finish work at a logistics firm.

Kirk continues to work for Rolls-Royce while studying for his Master of Science degree.

And in his spare time, he is developing a business to design and build furniture.

When not working, building furniture, or walking their two cocker spaniels Barney and Teddy, Kirk is a St Johns Ambulance first responder.

Kirk said: “This win means we are literally ‘set for life’ and we are going to fill every single second.”