A former police officer who had a close encounter with a UFO said he was 'driven to despair' by the aftermath of his sighting.
In a new episode of the BBC Sounds podcast Uncanny former Todmorden constable Alan Godfrey talks about being hounded by a sinister 'government' agent and losing almost everything in the wake of his paranormal discoveries.
Alan encountered a large, mysterious object hovering above Burnley Road, Todmorden, as he neared the end of his shift at 5am on November 28, 1980.
Read more stories about Yorkshire's weird – and sometimes gruesome – history here.
Five months earlier Alan had discovered the body of missing man Zigmund Adamski in a coal yard in the town.
Mr Adamski's head had been shaved and bore a ring of burn marks. A slimy yellow-green substance was seeping from a neck wound. He was strangely dressed and looked as if he had been dropped onto a heap of coal from a height.
The two incidents were linked by the media and PC Godfrey became a household name. He even, under the instruction of his superiors, started a correspondence with a Russian professor who had written to him about the sightings.
But Alan's fame gained him unwanted attention from senior police and a mysterious man from the 'ministry'.
One day he was called into the office of his chief inspector.
Sat to one side, Alan tells podcast presenter Danny Robins, was a man in civilian clothes who was sat with a thick file on his knee.
Alan said: "Me being me, I asked who he was and he just said: 'All you need to know is I'm the man from the ministry.'"
Whether he meant the Ministry of Defence (MoD), another government ministry or something else entirely, Alan says he doesn't know.
Alan noticed a sketch he had made of the UFO while sat in his police car watching the hovering craft was in the mysterious man's file.
He said: "I was ordered under the Official Secrets Act not to disclose anything to the media... about Adamski or my own encounter."
Alan said they were further encounters with the 'ministry' man whom he described as an 'arrogant b******'.
PC Godfrey was having a pint in his local pub when the sinister man reappeared.
"I told him to take a long walk on a short pier but in a good Yorkshire version of it," Alan said.
Alan later left West Yorkshire Police and his life began to fall apart.
He said: "It wrecked me. It completely changed me.
"I ended up drinking a bottle of whisky every single day. I was nearly an alcoholic. It drove me to despair.
"My marriage broke up. I ended up in a friends' attic bedroom, in the gutter.
"I will always remember that Christmas Day. I had no money. I couldn't even buy my kids' Christmas presents...
"I was an absolute shambles."
Alan has since talked about his ordeal and believes he was silenced by the government.
Dr David Clarke, who teaches investigative journalism and has a particular interest in the unexplained, also appears on the podcast.
The Sheffield Hallam University lecturer believes West Yorkshire Police, rather than the government, may have wanted Alan silenced.
It was around the time of the Yorkshire Ripper murders and the force was under immense scrutiny. Could PC Godfrey have been an embarrassment to them?
Dr Clarke said: "West Yorkshire Police have got questions to answer on this and they have never answered them."
Alan, who has published a book about his encounter and the aftermath, has asked for his file to be released but to no avail.
He said: "They've released all the UFO files from the MoD. They've never released mine.
"What are they hiding?"
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