Alan Godfrey

Alan Godfrey (born 30 June 1947)^[1] is a retired police constable of the West Yorkshire Police known for his 1980 report of an unidentified flying object.

Godfrey has an older brother Colin, with whom he played local football, and twin brothers Ian and Stuart, who were born on 8 March 1950.^[2] In the early 1970s Godfrey lived at 20 Adelaide Street, and would frequent the Weavers Arms.^[3] Around 1970, he briefly worked in south London.

On the evening of 28 November 1980, PC Godfrey responded to reports of cattle wandering around a council estate in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Godfrey claims that during this patrol he saw a bright light hovering above the road, describing it as a rotating diamond-shaped object about 20 feet (6.1 m) high and 14 feet (4.3 m) wide. Godfrey tried to radio for help but his equipment did not work; the object then suddenly vanished and Godfrey found himself 30 yards (27 m) further down the road.^[4] He could not account for approximately 30 minutes, and had a split boot and an itchy red mark on his foot.^[4] During hypnotic regression, Godfrey recalled how a beam of light blinded him and made him pass out, before waking up inside a room being medically examined by small beings and a humanoid.^[4]

Godfrey believes that he was forced into early retirement from the police force.^[4] In 2018, he stated his belief that the abduction he told of under hypnosis was probably a dream, stating that he "never said [he] was abducted by aliens".^[5]

Six months earlier, in June 1980, Godfrey investigated the death of 56-year-old Zigmund Adamski. Adamski went missing on 6 June; his body was found three days later on top of a 10-foot-high (3.0 m) Todmorden coal pile, 20 miles (32 km) from his Tingley home.^[5] He was wearing a suit but his shirt was missing.^[5] His clothes were "improperly" fastened and his hair had also been cropped short in a "roughly cut" manner.^[6] Godfrey told reporters that he believed it possible that Adamski may have been abducted by aliens and placed on the coal pile "by someone or something", saying that he was "open minded".^[4][6] Other theories put forward have suggested that Adamski was killed by KGB agents, or that he had been struck by ball lightning, become dazed and confused and wandered off to the coal pile and died. Adamski's wife, Lottie, initially suspected that her husband had been kidnapped.^[5]

Godfrey has self-published Who or What Were They?, a book that includes his speculations regarding his own UFO sighting, the Adamski case, and abduction claims by Travis Walton.^[5]

Godfrey married on Saturday 28 February 1970.^[7] His wife was born 15 January 1951.^[8] His daughter Julie-Ann was born in August 1970.^[9]

He remarried in September 1995.

• Official website