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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Aamiin Hassan Daacad
Somali pirates 'have released' kidnapped Brit Judith Tebbutt
Freed ... Judith Tebbutt
Published: Today at 09:53
KIDNAPPED Brit Judith Tebbutt says she is "really happy" to have finally been freed after six months in captivity at the hands of Somali pirates.
She was dramatically released today after being taken hostage in September and is on her way back to Kenya.
She told ITV News: "I'm really happy. It's just nice to be around other people, it's been quietly lonely for seven months."
She was freed after a ransom was paid by her relatives, according to reports.
Judith, from Bishop's Stortford, Herts, was snatched from the country by an armed gang who shot her husband dead.
The social worker, 56, was taken from the remote Kiwayu Safari Village beach resort "kicking and screaming" after husband David, 58, was shot in the chest with an AK47.
A speedboat took her into lawless Somalia where pirates held British yacht couple Paul and Rachel Chandler for 13 months.
Mrs Tebbutt told ITV News the pirates had made her "feel as comfortable as possible".
She said: "I am very relieved to have been released. Seven months is a long time and under the circumstances with my husband passing away made it harder.
"I am just happy to be released and I'm looking forward to seeing my son who successfully secured my release. I don't know how he did it, but he did. Which is great."
She had also spoken to the broadcaster before she was freed and at that time was claiming to have been well treated.
She said: "My condition is good as far as I know. My health is good. I sleep very well here. I have been ill three times in the seven months. On each occasion I have had medication almost immediately and it's cleared up.
"I am really happy that I am being released and I am looking forward to seeing my son and my family and I am going home. I feel fine. I have had absolutely no torture whatsoever. In fact I have been made to feel as comfortable as possible by the pirates that are holding me."
The couple's son, Oliver, declined to comment today but a friend of Mr Tebbutt said it sounded like "wonderful news".
Somali pirate Bile Hussein and Mohammed Hussein, an official with the militia Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama, said Judith, was released by pirates holding her today and was expected to be flown to the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
David was a publishing exec with Faber & Faber and was a member of the Book Trade Charity.
Its chief executive David Hicks knew him for 15 years and said today: "This sounds wonderful, though I'll only really be happy when it's definite that she's safe."
Local MP Richard Harrington, from Watford, told Sky News: "Our thoughts are with Oliver, who must have such feelings today. Under the circumstances, he's done absolutely fantastically.
"To see his parents go on holiday, and saying he'll see them in a couple of weeks' time, in the most routine way that happens to all of us, then to find what happened to his father, and his mother, for so long whereabouts unknown, I'm sure he's got the deepest emotional feelings today, that none of us will ever experience in our lives, but I think he's conducted himself for one so young so extremely well, and I do nothing other than just commend him."
A team of Metropolitan Police officers travelled to Kenya to help authorities investigating the case.
She told ITV News: "I'm really happy. It's just nice to be around other people, it's been quietly lonely for seven months."
She was freed after a ransom was paid by her relatives, according to reports.
Judith, from Bishop's Stortford, Herts, was snatched from the country by an armed gang who shot her husband dead.
Shot ... David Tebbutt
A speedboat took her into lawless Somalia where pirates held British yacht couple Paul and Rachel Chandler for 13 months.
Mrs Tebbutt told ITV News the pirates had made her "feel as comfortable as possible".
She said: "I am very relieved to have been released. Seven months is a long time and under the circumstances with my husband passing away made it harder.
"I am just happy to be released and I'm looking forward to seeing my son who successfully secured my release. I don't know how he did it, but he did. Which is great."
She had also spoken to the broadcaster before she was freed and at that time was claiming to have been well treated.
She said: "My condition is good as far as I know. My health is good. I sleep very well here. I have been ill three times in the seven months. On each occasion I have had medication almost immediately and it's cleared up.
"I am really happy that I am being released and I am looking forward to seeing my son and my family and I am going home. I feel fine. I have had absolutely no torture whatsoever. In fact I have been made to feel as comfortable as possible by the pirates that are holding me."
The couple's son, Oliver, declined to comment today but a friend of Mr Tebbutt said it sounded like "wonderful news".
Video: Brit hostage freed by pirates
JUDITH Tebbutt, abducted from Kenyan resort last September is let goDavid was a publishing exec with Faber & Faber and was a member of the Book Trade Charity.
Its chief executive David Hicks knew him for 15 years and said today: "This sounds wonderful, though I'll only really be happy when it's definite that she's safe."
Local MP Richard Harrington, from Watford, told Sky News: "Our thoughts are with Oliver, who must have such feelings today. Under the circumstances, he's done absolutely fantastically.
"To see his parents go on holiday, and saying he'll see them in a couple of weeks' time, in the most routine way that happens to all of us, then to find what happened to his father, and his mother, for so long whereabouts unknown, I'm sure he's got the deepest emotional feelings today, that none of us will ever experience in our lives, but I think he's conducted himself for one so young so extremely well, and I do nothing other than just commend him."
A team of Metropolitan Police officers travelled to Kenya to help authorities investigating the case.
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