Inside the UK’s Only UFO Criminal Investigation
On a damp Friday morning in November 1979, a quiet Scottish forestry worker stepped into a clearing in Dechmont Woods. Less than an hour later, he stumbled back toward civilization bruised, disoriented, and missing his voice, setting off what would become the most thoroughly investigated UFO case in British history.
What makes the Robert Taylor Incident so unique isn’t just the bizarre nature of the encounter, but what happened immediately after: Lothian and Borders Police treated the location as a crime scene, opening an official investigation into an assault by person or persons unknown.
The Encounter
At approximately 10:30 AM on November 9, 1979, 61-year-old Robert “Bob” Taylor parked his pickup truck near Dechmont Law, a prominent hill near Livingston. Accompanied by his Red Setter, Lara, Taylor was working for the Livingston Development Corporation, checking on young fir trees.
As he turned a corner into a clearing framed by pine trees, he came face-to-face with something impossible.
Hovering silently just inches above the forest floor was a massive, dome-shaped metallic craft roughly 20 feet (6.4 meters) in diameter. Taylor described the material as a dull, dark grey with a texture like coarse sandpaper, featuring a rim fitted with small, rotating propellers.
Before he could react, two smaller objects dropped out from the bottom of the main dome. Taylor described them as dark spheres resembling naval sea mines covered in protruding spikes. The spheres rolled across the grass toward him.
As they reached his feet, a mechanical mechanism extended from the spheres, grabbing onto his trousers at the hips. Taylor reported an overpowering, choking odor that smelled like “burning brake linings”. As he felt himself being dragged toward the main craft, he fell unconscious.
The Eyewitness Reports
Bob Taylor’s First Statements
When Taylor regained consciousness roughly 20 minutes later, the clearing was empty. His dog was running around frantically, barking at the open air. Taylor tried to speak, but found he had lost his voice. His legs were weak, his head was pounding, and he had a severe burning sensation in his throat.
Unable to get his truck started, which investigators later noted was stuck in mud, Taylor crawled and stumbled the mile-long journey back to his home in Oakbank.
When his wife, Mary, opened the door around 11:30 AM, she found him confused, covered in mud, with tears on the sides of his trousers, grazes on his chin and knees, and his speech slurred.
“I was attacked by two mine-like objects that came out of a flying saucer,” Taylor managed to gasp out before asking her to call the authorities.
Medical Findings: Dr. Gordon Adams
Dr. Adams arrived shortly after Bob reached home. His medical assessment noted that Taylor was suffering from clear signs of physical trauma and disorientation:
A mild concussion, consistent with losing consciousness.
Grazes on his chin and thighs.
A severe headache and persistent thirst, typical of exposure to toxic inhalants.
No alcohol or drugs in his system; Dr. Adams described Taylor as a calm, sensible man who was genuinely shaken by a physical ordeal.
Police Response: Detective Inspector Malcolm Robson
Lothian and Borders Police took the case seriously. Detective Inspector Malcolm Robson led a team back to the clearing that same afternoon. Finding torn clothing and physical injuries on a victim, the police logged the event under incident code 628/79 as a criminal assault.
Police cordoned off the area with tape and brought in forensic units. What they discovered at the site added immense weight to Taylor’s story:
Symmetrical Markings: Deep, ladder-like indentations were pressed into the damp turf, matching the area where Taylor claimed the primary dome hovered.
Roller Trails: Roughly 40 smaller, teardrop-shaped punctures and track marks in the ground traced the exact path where Taylor said the spiked spheres rolled toward him.
Trousers Analysis: Forensic scientists analyzed Taylor’s thick navy trousers. They concluded the tears at his hips were caused by a strong, upward pulling force from a rigid object or mechanical hook, rather than a tear caused by briars or falling on rocks.
Alternative Theories
Because Bob Taylor was widely regarded as an honest, grounded man with zero interest in publicity or profit, investigators ruled out a hoax almost immediately. Over the decades, researchers have debated several competing explanations:
The Medical / Seizure Hypothesis
The most prominent skeptic theory suggests Taylor suffered a localized temporal lobe epileptic seizure or a complex migraine aura. Proponents argue this could cause visual hallucinations (the metallic dome), olfactory hallucinations (the smell of burning brakes), a sudden fall causing concussion and temporary loss of speech. However, this theory struggles to explain the symmetrical markings pressed into the ground.
The Water Tower / Machinery Explanation
Others speculated that Taylor saw a piece of heavy construction equipment or a water authority test rig being moved through the woods, combined with an accidental spill of chemical fumes that disoriented him. Yet no water company or forestry contractor reported moving equipment through that section of the woods on that day.
The Ball Lightning / Chemical Exposure
Some UFO researchers proposed an encounter with rare atmospheric phenomena like ball lightning, which can emit ozone or sulfurous odors (smelling like burnt brakes) and cause sudden electrical or magnetic charges capable of inducing headaches and confusion.
The Legacy of Robert Taylor
Decades later, the Livingston incident stands alone in the vaults of British UFO mystery. The police file to this day remains open, officially classified as an unsolved assault by perons / persons unknown.
Bob Taylor passed away in 2007 at the age of 88. Until his final days, he never altered a single detail of his story, nor did he seek fame or money from it. Today, visitors walking through Dechmont Woods near Livingston can follow the official UFO Trail to the clearing, where a metal plaque marks the exact spot where Robert Taylor’s forestry work turned into a criminal investigation of the third kind.
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