Bob Taylor's encounter with the mysterious spheres in Dechmont,
Livingston, is one of the most written about cases of a close
encounter in UK history.
On the 9th of November 1979 at 10am Bob Taylor aged 61 a Forester
from Livingston working for the Livingston Development Corporation
left his house. He headed towards Dechmont law with his dog Lara, to
look for stray cows and sheep which was part of his job.
He parked his truck to the bottom of Dechmont Law and headed with
his dog the rest of the way along a dirt track on the lower slop of
Dechmont towards a clearing surround by trees. On finding the
clearing he was surprised with what he saw. In the clearing, in front
of him, was a large, circular, roundish object about 20 ft across and
12 feet high, resting on the ground or hovering just above the
ground. It seemed to be made from a dark grey metallic material with
a rough texture like sandpaper, parts of which were becoming like
half transparent at times, letting the trees behind it be seen, as if
the object was trying to cloak itself. A narrow protruding rim ran
around the circumference of the object, just below halfway down, and
Taylor thought it reminded him of the brim of a hat.
As Bob and his dog stood and starred in disbelief at the object,
two smaller spheres moved towards him and flanked him, each rolling
at the same time to his left and right foot. As his dog barked
furiously, the spikes attached to the Bob's trousers and pulled him
towards the larger sphere. Bob heard a distinct hissing sound and
smelled an acrid smell that caused him to choke. He then lost
consciousness and collapsed on the round. Taylor regained consciousness after a while. He was
lying face down on the grass, his trousers were torn, he suffered a
headache and his legs were aching. He had a sore throat and a strange
bitter taste in his mouth.
He realized that he could not stand up or speak. It was
later estimated that he had blackened out for fifteen or twenty
minutes. The unidentified object had disappeared, but his dog was
running about barking wildly and he noticed that there were marks in
the ground where the object had been.
Feeling weak and dizzy, and unable to get on his feet,
he dragged himself to his truck and tried calling for help on his 2
way radio but couldn't speak. So he started to drive away. But he was
such in bad condition that at one point he drove into a ditch. The
truck then became stuck in mud, so he had to walk more than a mile,
stumbling and falling, to reach his home in near Dechmont Woods.
Upon reaching home at 11:30 a.m., Mary Taylor his wife,
expressed concern at his state. She assumed he had been attacked and
called the police. Taylor intervened and requested she contacted
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 ladders, the other indentations which
numbered forty in total were suspected to be the tracks left by the
smaller objects. 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. An investigation into the incident checked all the
forestry equipment used in the area; none of it had tracks that
matched. No evidence was found of any helicopter traffic in the
region that particular day, or even the day before. A search of the area around the clearing was made in
order to see if there were signs of any mobile crane that might have
been used to lower something into the ground, but nothing was found. The marks indicated an object of several tons had stood
there but no information has been gained to explain them. The detective sergeant in charge of the case did not believe in space
visitors. Mr Taylor's boss at the Forestry Department did not believe
either, and thought it was probably some secret device being tested by
the government. UFO debunkers thought Mr Taylor might have seen a
magnified image of Venus distorted by the earth's atmosphere, which had
made him fall down in an epileptic fit. The press came; and by the time
the story reached Edinburgh, it was “small furry creatures” that had
poured from the spacecraft to attack him. “I know what I saw,” said Mr
Taylor. So doughtily and drily did he stick to his tale that the police opened a criminal investigation for
assault, the only one in Britain to arise from a UFO “sighting”. It
case still remains open.
