Adolph’s evil-eye look gave Steve the cold shivers

The doll was put into auction by Britain’s Got Talent finalists, the Circus of Horrors, after a number of “freak events and accidents” convinced the cast and crew that the doll called Adolph was cursed.

And Steve Hunt, of the specialist Elephant House Auctions, Leamington, believes talk of a curse may have some substance after his series of mishaps.

An auctioneer for around 20 years he was glad the doll – appropriately given the lot number 666 – was sold recently and off the premises.

He said: “I have never experienced anything like this before. It was strange because things kept happening one after another. It was like a message.

“We got back here to Leamington and at an auction you have things hanging on the walls but things kept falling off inexplicably.

“Then I fell off a stepladder which I have been going up and down for years without anything happening.

“When you have so many coincidences, you start to wonder. I would say there seems to something in the talk of a curse when you consider what happened on tour and what happened to me.”

Steve got the parking ticket in London in a quiet residential street on a day and time when parking wardens don’t usually operate.

Hours later he took Adolph into a south London pub “for safety” after the landlord warned it might get pinched from his car, but when the landlord heard of the “curse” the doll was put in another room with a blanket over it.

But Steve said: “Two to three hours later the amplifier suddenly went bang and stopped and all the sound went. The doll was about 8ft from it.

“I picked the lot number 666 because strange things were happening and if it was the devil I thought I will give it the devil’s number.”

After eager bidding the doll was bought for £280 by people from Nottinghamshire, fans of the Circus of Horrors shows.

“I was glad it was sold and that it went to a home that will appreciate it and possibly break the curse and stop its shenanigans,” said Steve, who by coincidence also has 666 in part of his mobile number.

“They tweeted me a picture of it sitting in the house, so they got home safe.”

The Circus of Horrors founder, who goes by the name Doktor Haze, said he commissioned the doll “to look evil” and vehicles that carried it would break down and one veered off the road.

He said: “The cast all managed to jump out, but when they looked inside the window, they found the doll sat bolt-upright in the back seat, whereas he had been lying down before.

“This led to mutiny. Many of the cast refused to travel in the same vehicle as the doll, and two Spaniards left shortly afterwards.”

And he said during a show there was a sequence where the doll appeared to be brought to life by the aid of a coil which would light up the character Hannibal Helmurto’s neon sword for him to swallow.

However, the performer’s oesophagus was ripped during the act and he was treated in intensive care for a month until the rip repaired itself, said Doktor Haze.

But he’s not convinced by talk of a curse, saying: “I didn’t believe it – I think it was all coincidence.”

He refused to heed pleas by the cast and crew to burn the doll in order to “destroy the curse” and added: “It seems too daft to believe that any of this could be real – but who knows?”