A woman who believes aliens have repeatedly abducted her in her sleep say they've left her with "weird bruises and punctures" in her skin.
Maria Leiva, 51, claims the abductions have been going on for as long as she can remember and she's come into contact with heavy-handed extraterrestrials numerous times.
The mum, from Ramsgate, Kent, says she often wakes up to find bruises or finger marks on her body which she's certain are evidence of an extra-terrestrial visit.
Maria, a support worker, says she sometimes wakes up in locations far away from her house with no idea how she got there - and once even had to get a taxi home.
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Maria said: "For as long as I can remember I have had these encounters, the earliest memories were from when I was around four-years-old and I knew it was happening.
"I remember being sad at night and going out onto the terrace at my family home in Columbia and crying out to the stars. I would ask them why they left me here and I would tell them I wanted to go back home.
"I have always been able to see things in the sky, as well as actually seeing beings as well.
"I am sometimes awakened by telepathic communications between the hours of two and four in the morning, being told to wake up and go to the window as something is out there. Sometimes I can record videos of what is out there, but sometimes I can only take photos.
"I don't have any control over when it happens, but in the past two weeks I have seen two flying objects in the sky, up to three times in one night.
"There can also be quiet patches where there isn't much happening, but they communicate with me through my dreams and I will then know when they are visiting.
"When they visit, they will leave me with weird bruises on my body.
"I would wake up with marks on my body, bruises, finger marks, punctures in my skin and cuts as well, and this is how I'd know something had happened in the night.
"My daughter also has these experiences and she has for her whole life, but we never really speak about it with people.
"She believes she can see them too, seeing her first UFO when she was ten. We were living in Hackney and it was one morning when I was taking her to school she looked into the sky and could see the shape of a UFO in the sky, she has now seen several since.
"At the beginning, when I was younger, I wasn't sharing much of what I was experiencing as these aren't things you'd talk about much and if I shared it people would think I was crazy.
"As I got older I started to share little parts of what was happening with friends but I didn't want to scare people.
"My parents knew what was happening but it was something that would never be spoken about.
"There was one particular time in Columbia at my parents' house where one night I was taken in my sleep and I woke up in a completely different place and I was left quite far away.
"I had to get a taxi home, and I didn't even have my house keys so I had to knock on the door. My dad answered and he was so puzzled as to what had happened and why I had left and was only just coming home."
Maria has had unusual alien encounters for as long as she can remember, and being taken in the night, communicating through her dreams. Because of this, Maria has been heavily involved in the UFO community her whole life.
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Maria adds: "I enjoy going to conferences around the world for E.T and flying saucers, I speak to people who have experienced the same things as me such as seeing UFO's and aliens.
"I have also seen aliens as well. I saw them in Barcelona when I was living there in the mountains.
"One day when I was washing the dishes, I saw what I can only say was a translucent watery type figure by a tree. I was looking very intensely at it and knew I saw a being there.
"I have also seen beings who look like humans. They are just a little taller than average and have larger almond-shaped eyes."
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