It is a long way from local government in Winchester to the highest levels of secrecy in the US and UK governments, yet a 27-minute video posted by Winchester Liberal Democrat councillor Adrian Hicks sought to bridge that gap.
Among the more mundane details was his admission that his move to seek local election, which he successfully achieved in 2007, was prompted by his belief in claims surrounding the supposedly top-secret Majestic group, widely circulated in the wake of the infamous MJ-12 documents.
A strange sight on Winchester High Street
Hicks, who spent 35 years working as an orthopaedic technician in the A&E department at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, said he had a life-changing experience on Winchester High Street in 2004 and became convinced that he had encountered an alien in broad daylight in his home city.
His description of a blonde female entity clad in a tutu and ballet shoes is at odds with most UK alien reports.
Despite the street setting and daytime sighting of what at first appeared to be a human figure, Hicks soon noticed what he regarded as strange limb movements and notably large, prominent oval eyes.
The incident occurred early in 2004 in the relatively normal setting of a well-known clock and a bookshop.
From unusual sighting to wider UFO beliefs
Councillor Hicks went about his local public duties for the best part of two years after election before sharing his story, along with the results of lengthy internet searches and reading that had convinced him that claims about deep secrecy and collusion between aliens and the highest levels of US and UK government were true.
He connected his own sighting to other reports in the area, notably glowing cigar-shaped lights seen over nearby St Catherine’s Hill and the Chilcomb military ranges. Hicks considered it possible that aliens were navigating by using landmarks such as the Intech Science Centre in Winchester.
His public claims soon gained traction in the UFO community, though his fellow Liberal Democrats were less impressed, making clear that Adrian Hicks’ views on his experience and the subject of UFOs and aliens were his own and did not represent the party.
A Winchester story that caught attention
On a more positive note for Hicks, his story proved popular with readers of the local Southern Daily Echo, a paper already accustomed to publishing local paranormal claims.
By 2009, the newspaper was posting regular online links to the national Paranormal Database because so many of the reports included there came from Hampshire.
