The Courier

A close encounter on a country lane has turned a Southam man into a UFO believer. Myles Sullivan and his wife Kate were returning from a wedding late on Saturday July 31 when a pair of darting yellow lights in the sky followed them along the road between Napton and Southam.

The yellow glowing lights appeared to be at the same height as a low-flying helicopter but moved faster. And when Mr Sullivan slowed the car and opened the window, there was no sound of engines.

Mr Sullivan, a history and RE teacher, said: "It was one of those sensations where the hair stands up on the back of your neck.

"It was a UFO in the true sense of the phrase. It was something in the air and we didn't know what it was.

"If I didn't believe before I believe now. It just didn't seem like anything I would recognise."

Sometimes disappearing in low cloud, Mr Sullivan described how the lights darted around alongside and over the car, following the couple until they reached the edge of Southam.

Mr Sullivan added: "You couldn't see them constantly. You would see them, then they would disappear.

"It was almost like they were chasing each other or playing together."

Many recent sightings have been attributed to the popularity of Chinese lanterns, but Mr Sullivan said the lights remained at a steady height and did not rise like Chinese lanterns. Neither did they cast a beam like lamps on tractors or combine harvesters.

When the couple got home Mr Sullivan checked the internet to see if anybody else had seen anything.

He found his sighting was not the only unexplained phenomenon near Southam in recent weeks. A crop circle with a design like an eye appeared in a field beside the Fosse Way near Ufton on July 14.

The father of three, who lives in Coventry Road, added: "I'm not a stargazer or a UFO spotter but I'm receptive to the idea that there could be spaceships out there.

"It spooked me at the time and I wondered if anybody else had seen anything. I guess it was one of those things you get in a quiet country lane that people can't explain."

The Ufton crop circle attracted the attention of international website www.cropcircleconnector.com

Photographer Julian Gibsone said its 'all-seeing eye' or 'sonic' eye design was a symbol of mystery dating back to ancient Egypt, but did not often appear in crop circles.

He added recent circles near Guy's Cliffe in Warwick and last year near Chesterton Windmill had been of an "extremely high" standard, comparable to examples in Wiltshire, a world crop circle hotspot.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the ministry no longer commented on UFO sightings.