On May 14th 2012 myself, four other people and a BBC film crew were filming in Nevada and near Area 51 and decided to go up to the Back Gate at Rachel at approx 1730 hours. We drove down the road to the gate and parked up expecting to be turned away straight away as we were filming on the public land outside the boundary. However there were no guards to be seen and all was quiet.

There was 12 of us in total plus one tour bus and driver, so after spending about 30 minutes doing various filming outside the first stop barrier and trying to call the guards, we all decided to walk onto the prohibited area in front of the guard shacks and continue filming. I though this was a bad idea but still no sign of any guards and we were left alone to freely film the buildings and cctv cameras watching us. Basically we had ignored the warning signs and we now trespassing on Area 51 as you can see in the images. We continued to film for another 30 minutes with no trouble at all until one of our group looked through the shack window at the guards. They were all sitting down eating their dinner watching the basketball on TV.

At this point and because we could see that the guards were not bothered that we were actually trespassing on the restricted area, one of the film crew decided to knock on the guard shack door....

All hell broke loose, the guards came running out with their weapons and we were all detained and made to lie face down in the dirt at gunpoint. The guards had had enough and we were arrested, every one of us was searched and all our filming mics were taken of us including the film cameras and at that point our personal cell phones as some of us including myself had been taking pictures.

As I lay face down in the dirt I took in what I was hearing and could observe. Firstly the guards were all on radios using call signs 'jacobite' and 'ghost walker'. The first being their commanding officer who was on route in a pick up from Groom Lake direct. The second it turns out was and Apache helicopter which was alerted to what was happening and was sent to monitor the situation. Whilst lying in the dirt I could hear the Apache in the distance and although at this point the light had faded, the guards were saying to 'Ghost walker' to focus on our tour bus. It was later confirmed to me by a lieutenant who was in charge of the guards that it was an Apache helicopter and that the aircraft was armed because we had a vehicle that in their eyes was unsecure...

We lay in the dirt for approx 3 hours and well into the evening until the Lincoln County Sherriff arrived on scene. Basically this incident was so serious that the military and FBI became involved and they had to inform Washington that 12 Brits had been detained at Area 51 for trespass without consent. I was told this directly by the sheriff who said that we were all very lucky not to have been shot. We were all searched one by one and eventually let off with a fine of $630 dollars each.

Once it was clear to the guards that we were no threat their attitude changed and they became a little friendlier with us and we were allowed to stand back on public land after the sheriffs had dealt with us and issued the fines. I managed to use this opportunity to try and get some more info from the guards and catch them off guard. I asked numerous questions in conversation about the base and one guard told me that even if I had kept going as soon as I had got within 10 miles of the main runway, artificial intelligently controlled ATVs would have fired on me or stopped me. He also confirmed that the whole area including public land at Rachel and Alamo and on the highway was full of sensors and hidden cctv cameras. When he realised that I was digging too deep he politely told me to stop asking questions and he walked off.

However I kept my ears open the whole time and was able to listen in on the guards talking and one thing that struck me was the fact that the Groom Lake facility commanders were clearly worried about our presence and the radio chatter I could hear was about current aircraft 'up in the air' and the 'moving to sub levels' of some personnel. I didn’t quite understand what they meant by this but I assumed that they were talking about the airfield areas as I did over hear a guard say that 'once confirmation comes back that its lockdown, we will let the bus go.

Before we left we were all given the regimental speech from one of the guards that we did not 'see anything' and that we could not talk about what happened, and that was that. We all got back on our tour bus and head back to Windmill Ranch at Alamo where we were staying that evening and the following night. We had the film cameras confiscated and everyone who took pictures on their cell phones had to delete them but I managed to keep some as you can see. The next day we obtained new film cameras from Las Vegas and went on to film in the Rachel area and the Blackmail Box. However we were followed by Government pickups all day and night and I even had the pleasure of stopping two guys who had followed us to the Little A'le Inn and say to them that I had watched them drive out of the desert from Groom Lake and follow us. They stumbled over their words and quickly left the cafe and drove back towards the Back Gate where we were detained the previous evening.

The show we were filming was for the BBC and will be called Conspiracy Coach Trip UFO, and will air in the autumn of 2012 and New Year 2013 on BBC3 TV Channel in the UK. I will also make it freely available on YouTube.