A UFO expert from the USA contacted the Welwyn Hatfield Times to say he believes aliens are working with the US Government in an underground base.

Mike Orrell, of San Diego, California, got in touch after reading Welwyn Hatfield Times chief reporter Paul Christian’s online story about UFO hacker Gary McKinnon’s mother, Janice Sharp, from Brookmans Park, writing a book about her battle to halt her son’s extradition.

Mr McKinnon hacked into computers owned by the Pentagon and NASA, and was looking for evidence of UFOs.

Mr Orrell, 56, made some pretty fanciful claims and said he would “sure like to see what Gary saw in those files”.

When asked what information he thought the two US departments might hold he said: “I heard reports that he saw evidence that the US Government had captured UFOs and was working with aliens in an underground base.”

He added: “It seems with the amount of sightings escalating around the world, that contact may be just around the corner.”

Mr Orrell said he was no stranger to unexplained phenomena, and sent us a snap of a group of UFOs, dubbed ‘The Inaja Formation’, which he snapped in San Diego, in 1990.

Whatever your view on UFOs, I am old enough to remember a certain TV show called The X Files, which had the tagline “the truth is out there”.

Indeed it is.