The little grey men are coming (From The Northern Echo)

The little grey men are coming

9:56am Tuesday 30th December 2008

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Do aliens exist? Richard Hall, from Consett, thinks so – and wants the world to know.

Owen Amos meets him before a presentation in Hartlepool.

RICHARD Hall is a wise man. He has a degree in electrical engineering – from Newcastle University, no less – and worked for Rolls Royce, across the world, for 14 years. So why does he believe the Earth is visited by “small grey” aliens – stop sniggering – from Zeta Reticuli, a star 39 light years away?

On Richard’s website – catchlined “The Truth Is Here” – he signs his introduction “Richard D Hall (BEng (Hons) CEng MIEE)”.

What it means, of course, is Richard D Hall (I’m Not Mad – Honest). Because we view Richard and fellow ufologists, like Mohamed Al Fayed, as a curious conspiracy theorist, best ignored.

Most of us, it seems, don’t rule aliens out. But we don’t rule them in, either. We have enough to worry about, like the mortgage and the price of petrol, without extending our musings to 13.7 billion light years of universe. Ignorance is bliss.

But not for Richard. His interest in UFOs was sparked by Bob Lazar, an American who claimed he investigated flying saucers for the US government in the late 1980s, following the Roswell incident in 1947 when ufologists believe a spaceship crashed in the Mexican desert. “It made me think ‘This guy isn’t making this up’,” says Richard, originally from Consett. “I read all the material and it went from there.”

Lazar’s science and qualifications have been questioned, but the more Richard read, the more he believed. Now, through his website, TV series on Sky and media appearances – from BBC to Talk Sport – he spreads the word, like an evangelist at Hyde Park Corner.

We meet before his one-man show at Hartlepool Town Hall theatre. It’s £8 a ticket, but convincing sceptics, not chasing money, is the aim.

He’s calm and charismatic; eminently and evidently self-aware. “I like to consider myself a closet nerd,” he said on Talk Sport. “From the outside I look like a normal person – inside I’m a nerd.”

But, joking aside, the message is serious.

And simple. “I think there’s very strong evidence we have been visited by a race from Zeta Reticuli,” says Richard, 41. “The small grey alien that comes from that star. There is evidence of other aliens from other stars, but less.”

He hasn’t seen a UFO or alien. “If I did, I’d get my camera out,” he says. But he believes, with the cool head of a scientist, in the evidence.

So why do they travel 39 light years to see us?

“There is research that the small grey is interested in human genetics, because they have problems with their own genetics,” he says.

“They have developed problems with their physiology. This explains the abductions – they are using human DNA to correct their own shortcomings. That’s one possible reason.”

So no war of the worlds, or battle for universal supremacy?

“That’s a very difficult question to answer,”

he says. “Some people think aliens are already subverting positions of power – there may not be a war, but there may be subversion. That’s one theory. I haven’t seen evidence of that, but I wouldn’t dismiss it.”

Governments don’t reveal the truth, Richard believes. “It stems from 1947 when the Truman presidency covered up the Roswell incident,”

he says. “The cover-up grew from there. They have dug themselves a hole and it’s impossible to get out of.

“I wrote to 20 North-East Labour MPs – not one of them was willing to talk to me about the subject. I have written to Gordon Brown, but they referred me to the Ministry of Defence.

There is a complete wall of silence. The first step would be to bring it into the public arena.”

And, despite being on the radio more than Tony Blackburn, Richard believes the media are guilty, too.

“It became clear to me there was a wall of silence in the Government and the media,” he says. “To me it appears it’s a taboo subject. The compelling evidence hasn’t been portrayed in the mainstream media. People trust government and the media and the media aren’t brave enough to challenge governments.

“I’m a very curious person. Really, I would like to know what the Government knows – it knows more than what’s in the public domain.

I want them to share all the information with the public.”

The website, and the presentations, are an attempt to share the information, even if, more often than not, he’s preaching to the converted.

He admits “99 per cent” of sightings are hoaxes and admits that damages the cause.

“It does frustrate me,” says Richard, who is now a freelance website designer. “This is why I give these presentations, why I started the website. Once this information comes out, the changes that could occur for the world… it could be unrecognisable. There could be solutions to the energy crisis. We could find out why the pyramids were built, man’s true evolutionary path, how the universe works, why.”

The day will come, he says, and may come under Obama’s watch. As he considers it, his speech speeds up, fuelled by excitement. “If it happens it would be the event of our generation, the event of the century,” he says. “Everyone would remember where they were when it happened. That could bring about a paradigm shift.”

Until then, he’ll keep speaking up, keep getting mocked, then speak up some more. “I’m totally happy to have my head above the parapet,”

he says. “I’m convinced by the argument and I’m supported by the evidence. My ambition would be to discuss it with Gordon Brown on television.”

And for the doubters? “Come and see the presentation,”

he says, “and witness the compelling evidence that exists.”

■ For more information, and to buy Richard’s book, “Aliens Before Gentlemen – a Guide to the Future”, visit richplanet.net

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