The Robert Taylor Incident, sometimes also referred to as the Livingston Incident or the Dechmont Woods Encounter is the name given an event which occurred on Dechmont Law ("law" means "hill" in the Scots language) near Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland in 1979, in which local forester Robert "Bob" Taylor reported encountering an extraterrestrial spacecraft.[1][2] It is notable as being the first reported UFO case to have been officially investigated by the Scottish Lothian and Borders Police. As of 2007, it was the only recorded incident in which a UFO sighting has been the subject of a criminal investigation in the United Kingdom.[1]

The site where Taylor's encounter is said to have occurred has since become a tourist destination popular with UFO enthusiasts.[1]

The Encounter

On November 9, 1979, approximately between 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Taylor, who was at the time working for the Livingston Development Corporation, parked his pickup truck at the side of a road just off the M8 motorway with the intention of examining the progress of some saplings in the forest. Being unable to access the forest by truck, Taylor and his dog made their way into the forest on foot along one of the forest paths that lead up the side of Dechmont Law.

Upon entering a clearing approximately 500 metres away from his truck, Taylor saw what he described as a large, circular object, spheroid in shape and approximately twenty feet (six metres) in diameter hovering above the forest floor. The object had a narrow rim running along its circumference with stems topped with propellers and the surface of the object seemed to be constructed from a dark metallic material which appeared transparent in places. Taylor later described the surface of the object having rough texture similar to that of sandpaper and suggested that by having transparent areas on its surface, the object was attempting to camouflage itself with its surroundings.[3][4]

Taylor began to approach the object and upon doing so two smaller spheres three feet in diameter, which looked to be made from the same material, appeared to drop from underneath the larger sphere and began to roll towards him. Taylor described the smaller spheres as having appendages, making them similar to sea mines in appearance. As the small objects moved towards him, Taylor described them as making a "plopping" noise as the appendages made contact with the ground. The small spheres maneuvered around Taylor and by using their appendages, attached themselves to each side of his trousers, just underneath the pockets. Taylor said at this point, he heard a hissing noise coming from the small objects and he began to choke due to a strong acrid smell which he believes was being secreted by them. He described this smell as "burning automobile brake linings"[3] which was also described as an "acrid smell" which caused him to cough.[4] By now, Taylor was aware he was being dragged by the smaller spheres along the ground towards the larger object. He eventually fell forwards onto his face and lost consciousness.

Taylor later regained consciousness and upon doing so discovered the object had disappeared. Taylor then discovered he had trouble attempting to speak and could not get to his feet. He then crawled 100 metres along the ground and managed to stagger the rest of the distance back to where he had parked his truck. On reaching the truck he attempted to call for help on the truck's two way radio, but struggled due to his loss of voice. Taylor then attempted to get back home in the truck, but accidentally ditched it in soft earth while trying to drive in his condition. Due to his vehicle being stuck, Taylor walked the rest of the way back home[3][citation needed]. Other sources state the truck did not start and Taylor had to walk home from its parked location.[5][citation needed]

Taylor was always cited as being a man of good character, honest and reliable[6] He never asked for payment on reciting his version of events and up until his death at the age of 89 in 2007, still defended what he had seen on Dechmont Law. Today, a plaque (which was later stolen) and a small statuette are located in the clearing where Taylor stated he saw the object.[1][7]

Investigation and evidence

Upon reaching home at 11:30 a.m., Mary Taylor, Taylor's wife, expressed concern at his state. She assumed he had been attacked and called the police. Taylor intervened and requested she contact Malcolm Drummond, a supervisor at Livingston Development Corporation. While awaiting Drummond's arrival, Taylor complained of a headache and kept saying that he had been "gassed". Drummond and Taylor both attended the scene of the incident a short while later the same day and discovered strange indentations in the forest floor which Taylor stated had not

been there earlier that morning. One set were described as looking like rungs in ladder, the other indentations which numbered forty in total were suspected to be the tracks left by the smaller objects. No scorch marks were seen on the forest floor. Staff of the Livingston Development Corporation later took photographs of the scene.[5]

Taylor was seen by a doctor who found only grazing to his chin and thighs. Due to his injuries the police recorded the matter as a common assault.

Taylor's wife noticed tears in his trousers where Taylor claimed the small objects had attached themselves to him. The police later seized the trousers to be forensically examined. The forensic examination determined the tears in the trousers suggested the implements that had pierced the material, attempted to lift Taylor in an upwards fashion.

Explanations

It has been suggested by investigative science writer Steuart Campbell that Taylor actually witnessed a mirage of Venus, which induced an epileptic fit causing him to hallucinate the whole encounter. According to Robert Taylor, he had never experienced epilepsy before or after the event.[5]

The indentations have been described as being that of heavy construction equipment. CID Detective Sergeant Ian Wark investigating the case checked all the forestry equipment used in the area; none of it had tracks that matched and there were no construction vehicles in the vicinity.[8]

Earlier during his investigation of the Livingston incident Steuart Campbell suspected that Robert Taylor had observed an exotic form of natural phenomena termed “black ball lightning”.

This is an apparent variation of conventional ball lightning that somehow acquires a dark hue, patchy discolouration and/or an opaque aspect. However, while seemingly consistent with the sightings’ short duration and providing a potential explanation for the “sea mines”, their behaviour and possibly some of the physiological effects, the theory has many notable drawbacks. To begin with, the physical traces had no associated scorching or burning of the type one would expect of such an effect. Other aspects of the “sea mine” forms suggest they were physical objects capable of grasping Taylor, gripping and tearing his trousers and seemingly dragging him a short distance towards the object.

It is equally of note that the witness had close contact with these forms without experiencing sensations of heat, burning or an electrical discharge of any kind, his dog also seemingly being unharmed. Finally (perhaps the most significant factor of all) the prevalent meteorological conditions were not notably conducive with the formation of ball lightning.

A theory by author David Slater, proposes that Taylor’s experience may have been a belladonna induced hallucination that triggered memories of a recently aired Doctor Who episode in which a spaceship of similar appearance featured. It suggests the ground markings likely have a prosaic explanation such as post holes left over from a den that once occupied the site. The illustrated on-line article, Spaceships, Spheres and the Devil’s Herb, is admittedly speculative.

References

• 1. ^ a b c d Bob Taylor (Obituary), The Telegraph 2007-03-23 (2008-04-06)

  2. ^ Obituary: Robert Taylor, a possible victim of alien abduction, died on March 14th, aged 88 The Economist published March 29, 2007 - Date retrieved 4th April 2008, article archived by ufoevidence.org

  3. ^ a b c UFO Evidence: Forester encounters mine-like entities in Scotland (the Dechmont Woods Encounter)

  4. ^ a b I'm after the aliens that beat up Bob; Gareth Edwards; Edinburgh Evening News dated 9 November 2004. Date recovered 4 April 2008.

  5. ^ a b c Mysterious Britain: Dechmont Law UFO

  6. ^ Arthur C Clarke : Mysterious World . DVD Chapter 3 The UFO (Yorkshire Television 1998).

  7. ^ UFOencounters: The Derchmont Woods Incident (sic)

  8. ^ Uforth: Scottish ufo sightings

• Robert Taylor incident transcript on Strange but True?

  • Interview with Robert Taylor and Detectives investigating the case on YouTube. as shown on the 10th episode of Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, originally broadcast 4 November 1980

• Possibilities of UFO incident with image.

• Account of the encounter with interview with Taylor

Provo, Utah, 1966. The pilot of a twin engine C-47 "Skytrain" transport aircraft of the USAF captured this reddish object on photograph in July 1966 at 11:00 AM. The aircraft was flying over the Rocky Mountains, at about 40 kilometers southwest of Provo, Utah. 

The Condon commission, which concluded that UFOs are not worth of scientific investigations, did analyze the negative at the time and concluded that the photograph shows an ordinary object thrown in the air. Many ufologists disagree with their conclusion.Exhaustive investigation of the photograph concluded the UFO in the photograph is a real object.

In November of 1966, a Ph.D. scientist, returning to his California home from a business trip in Washington, was driving through Oregon and paused at a lookout point to photograph Diamond Peak. Of the three photographs taken at this location the last one included a strange object. This photo ultimately became the focus of a controversy among UFO investigators and has been the subject of numerous articles as well as a book. In this paper we present a chronicle of the author's investigation of this intriguing photo as well as an explanation of the true nature of the object in the photo. 

Source: http://ufos.homestead.com/willamette.pdf

At 4:00pm on February 12, 1971, a family who had recently purchased a new home in the northern part of the French island of Corsica, were preparing their camera to take a picture of the new house when one of the party noticed a glint in the sky and looked up. They all looked up to see a shiny, metallic object glinting brilliantly where it caught the sun's rays in the clear blue sky.

The object was disc-shaped and had a low-profile curved dome on the top, with some kind of oval-shaped or rounded-rectangular black marks or openings around its sides. The craft was moving silently in a slow curving descent course in the calm afternoon sky.

In October of 1978 their were several UFO Sighting in the Clarenville area, on a couple of occasions they were viewed by multiple witnesses each time.

The above photo is of a CBC interview with Cst. Jim Blackwood,  RCMP and Ken Meeker, regarding a UFO sighting that occurred in Clarenville area in October of 1978. 

At the time the Holiday Inn offered a free UFO weekend for two on the radio complete with a UFO kit.  Hickman Motors had a UFO car sale and the Old-timers Hockey team had Red Sweaters made with a yellow letters UFO on the front.  Cst. Jim Blackwood, was interviewed by every news agency from around the world and did an in-depth interview with Geoff Sterling on NTV which is still broadcasted over and over on late night TV.

  Source: Cst. Jim Blackwood,  RCMP

Clarenville, Newfoundland UFO Sighting In 1978

Date: November 26, 1978 Time: n/a

This is probably the most well known sighting in Newfoundland. I have copies of official documentation of this event.

On November 26, 1978. A Mr.Chester Lethbridge and his wife, reported to the RCMP a strange object in the sky for the second time over the duration of approximately one week over Random Island, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland.

RCMP Constable James Blackwood, an officer on location at the time went out to the Lethbridge home to investigate. Upon arriving he also saw this strange unidentifiable object in the sky. Both Mr. Lethbridge and Constable Blackwood describe the same thing: A cigar‑shaped object with a curved tail, in the sky with blue, red and yellow flashing lights. It ranged from about thirty‑five to forty feet in diameter and hovered approximately five hundred feet above sea level with no movement. The object also cast a shadow on the water,so he knew that what he was seeing was not a satellite or distant plant like Venus

This object was also being tracked by the Department of National Defense, Gander, NF. After observing the object with the naked eye for a while, Constable Blackwood took out this ball‑scope, a device used to amplify light sources in the night, to observe the object. This was definitely not a plane nor like any other aircraft Blackwood had ever seen. After observing the object in the sky for a little while longer, Constable Blackwood decided to turn on the flashing lights on his police car, Mr. Lethbridge, however, did not approve of this and went inside.

Constable Blackwood flicked on the flashing blue and red lights on his car, and within seconds the object in the sky imitated the pattern of flashing lights. Constable Blackwood was speechless, being interested in different types of aircraft as a hobby, Blackwood confidently says that though the craft was about the size of DC9 aircraft, it was definitely not a plane; it did not resemble any type of plane ever built to his knowledge. It had no wings and made no noise; it had a curved tail and a cigar‑shaped body and that was all, besides the flashing lights. After a period of about two hours, the object "left the scene like a shooting star, only in the opposite direction."

Shortly after this sighting in Clarenville, Newfoundland, Constable Blackwood, following procedure, made reports and sent them to the NRC ‑‑ National Research Council, in Ottawa. The National Research Council had an upper atmosphere research facility that, at that time, was responsible for UFO reports.

An authority with the NRC by the name of A.G. MacNamara responded to these reports by saying: "The objects were most likely the planet Jupiter, which is quite brilliant. It appears about midnight in mid‑October and is near the Mediterranean Sea. Saturn and several other bright stars are also visible in the Eastern sky at this hour of the night". Constable Blackwood was quite disgruntled at these comments by Mr. MacNamara, and the fact that MacNamara was making these assumptions without even talking to him or any of the witnesses of the sighting.

Blackwood assured me in a 1997 phone interview, that it was not the planet Jupiter nor was it Venus or any other star or planet, for he had seen these in the sky and was positive that this was not what he had witnessed hovering over Random Island for two hours. It must be kept in mind that the object seen by Chester Lethbridge, his wife and Constable Blackwood did cast a shadow on the water, and planets; stars and satellites do not cast shadows.

Blackwood has retired from the RCMP and no longer lives in Newfoundland.

James Blackwood's sketch of the object:

Source: Lee Tizzard - UFO researcher / Filmmaker

Newfoundland UFO Research Daily Report

Source: Newfoundland UFO Research Website

In October of 1978 an unusual craft visited Clarenville on a couple of occasions and was viewed by multiple witnesses on each visit. The following information has been gathered from RCMP documents and other government documents.

RCMP Reports

78-10-12 (October 12, 1978)

At 03:00, 78-10-12, Mr. and Mrs. X, Clarenville, Nfld. observed the following described object for approximately two hours. Mr. X observed it with the aid of binoculars from outside his residence. The sky was clear at this time and the object was observed over Random Island, Trinity Bay, Nfld. Object described as circular, 35 - 40 feet in diameter, flashing red, blue and yellow lights. It was approximately 500 feet above sea level and there was no movement. Mrs. X reported, this to the Department of National Defence, Gander, Nfld. at the time.

78-10-26 (October 26, 1978)

At 01(:)45 hours, Mr. X (the same Mr. X from the 12Oct78 report), Clarenville, Nfld., reported a UFO sighting in the area of Random Island, Trinity Bay, Nfld. The following described object was also witnessed by Mrs. X and Cst. Y of this Detachment (Clarenville). This object was observed with the aid of binoculars and a telescope from outside the X residence. The sky was clear at this time and the object was observed at an altitude of approximately three to four thousand feet. Object was decribed as oval shaped with a large triangular shaped fin on top, completely white with red, white and blue flashing lights and very bright. the object was stationary for approximately one hour at which time it moved straight up at a slow rate of speed. This has been reported to Department of National Defence, Gander, Nfld.

NOTE: The following account was compiled from anecdotal information and a NUFOR report. It is presented in the hope readers can provide more details of the case. (see also Don Ledger's book "Maritime UFO Files")

NUFOR Report - Many thanks to the witness for this excellent account.

12 or 26Oct78

I was 15 years old at the time of this sighting and living in Shoal Harbour.

It was late afternoon or early evening and still daylight. I was at home with my dad when I happened to look out the living room window that overlooks Random Sound. There, a large circular object about 50ft in diameter was hovering approximately 500ft above the ocean. This thing was big in my field of vision, say been between a baseball and a basketball held at arm's length. It remained stationary as we both viewed it through binoculars. The outer circumference of the craft flashed alternating coloured lights of red, white, blue and yellow. Not necessarily in that order.

As I remember it dad got a little nervous after about 15 to 20 minutes and he didn't want to look at it any more. He went back to watching television. He kept telling me to get away from the window, but I found the thing to be too interesting.

After roughly an hour, I didn't check the time, it was getting dark to the point where the outline of the craft could no longer be seen but it was still possible to see the flashing lights (Note: sunset was either at 17:53 on October 12 or 17:22 on October 26). I looked away for a few moments. When I looked back the lights were gone. Presumably the object had moved away.

The next day there were sketches in the newspaper, the Clarenville Packet, provided by the local RCMP photographer who had also viewed an object that same evening. Strangely the sketches showed a craft that was cigar shaped with a tail fin whereas from my vantage point, a few kilometers from the officer's location and looking at it from a different angle, the craft looked circular with no tail. Descriptions from others claiming to have seen the craft were in the paper as well.

My recollection is that two days after the sightings the police denied any knowledge of the event. No other stories appeared in the paper. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

NUFOR Notes

I visited the office of the Clarenville Packet during the week of 29Apr02 and was kindly allowed to review copies of the weekly paper from October and November of 1978. It appears that the paper did not do a story on the UFO sightings.

Only two references were made to the UFO activity, both in the November 02 edition. One was a poem by a local entitled, "Men from Outer Space" and the other was a comment in the editorial. Both were humorous in tone. Interestingly though the editor did make mention of a sighting on Monday night which was 30Oct78. This report is not covered under any RCMP document and seems to be in addition to the others. Supposedly the sighting was in Smith's Sound area.

It is possible that the witness recalls the sketches and media story from another source. Possibly the CBC news story that aired at the time.

OTHER

26Oct78

Clarenville, NF

Two RCMP officers responded to a call late at night to see a UFO situated over the "Tickle" off the Clarenville wharf.  The officers were met at the scene by a number of locals watching a disk hover motionless approximately 1000 feet from shore.  An external feature of the craft was a fin or tail.  After observing for more than 5 minutes, one officer turned on the cruiser lights and the disk responded by "flashing back" via lights on its body.  After a few variations on the light flashing sequence the officer took a camera from the car and photographed the object. The object departed.

It is claimed that the two officers went to the station and called their staff Sergeant. A full report was completed and both the report and camera film were placed in an envelope then put in the detachment safe. This envelope may have been removed a couple of days later by officers from another detachment or office.

Strange bright spots, abnormal glare, disturbing incidents. For many, the sky above Trieste conceals phenomena that are only a response in approaching extraterrestrials and flying saucers.Sightings, testimonies, photos, videos cataloged under "unidentified flying objects": UFOs. "On the evening of August 2, 2008 in San Giovanni I spotted, along with other witnesses, an object that quickly ran through the sky in the direction of Slovenian mountains . 

Its trajectory was not horizontal: sometimes stopped and then proceeded to zigzag. Two hours later a few minutes blackout fell on the area. " This is one of many UFO reports received to Section Triestina that among the sightings last year, noted two interesting cases. Luciano says Pearl, founder of the UFO section: "It's fair to say that UFOs have an objective reality. And the hypothesis that most adheres to the facts is that it is extraterrestrial. In our city - reports - have been spotted flying saucers only: no close encounter What instead happened in at least 500 cases in the rest of our country from the 40s to today. " The public skepticism and rationality of science do not disassemble the 'enthusiasm and belief of ufologists. 

"It is not denied the possibility of existence of elementary life forms or more advanced extraterrestrials - Mauro Messerotti precise, astrophysicist responsible for Basovizza station of the Astronomical Observatory - but to date there is no scientific evidence." In the hands of the same Messerotti in February 2006, was handed a video shot in Domio discussed from Trieste Roberto Bandel. A case that for ufologists still remains a mystery. "I got chills, - he had told the man - I do not want to go through visionary. I was glued to that light until it has not gone to a frightening speed. I have no doubt, I saw it with my own eyes and could not be an airplane or a helicopter. " So much fuss but then was never heard from again. But what happened to the fact that video? "I've done various analyzes - admits Messerotti - and I have not found any counterfeiting. My view is that what is recorded is the combination of the effects produced by the camera in front of the light sources. " 

In the late '50s to today in Trieste have been counted about fifty sightings.In the archive section of the UFO is documentation of sightings dating back to August 30, 1969 in Borgo San Sergio, 27 and 28 May 1986 to May 1996 and June 21, 2002. Particular emphasis is given to reporting dating back to July 29 1983, when Michael Sisti noticed an object moving towards the city at a height of no more than 100 meters above the ground.a sighting that caused a sensation dates back to 8 June 1972: in the district of St. James Paul Cernic then a student of fifth grade, then died prematurely, he noticed something unusual and took pictures. Someone spoke of atmospheric phenomenon, others a photomontage yet the episode is still one of the most interesting documents in the possession of ufologists