Hostage heads home in time for Christmas

THE 101-day ordeal of a British television producer held hostage in the Colombian jungle was finally over yesterday as he was freed in time to spend Christmas with his family.

Mark Henderson, 32, faced hunger, isolation and the constant fear of death after being captured by Marxist rebels along with seven other tourists on 12 September as they trekked in the mountains of northern Colombia.

Last night, after being flown to Valledupar in northern Colombia with four of the remaining hostages, he was due to travel to Bogota and is expected in Britain tomorrow, Christmas Eve.

"This is... a massive Christmas present," Mr Henderson’s mother, Sharelle, told reporters outside the family’s home in Patelely Bridge, North Yorkshire.

When asked how she felt at his release, she said: "I don’t know. Just sheer joy. Just magic."

Mark’s father, Christopher, paid tribute to the Roman Catholic Chuch which had been instrumental in his son’s release.

Mr Henderson, who spoke briefly to his parents by telephone shortly after being freed, told them he was "absolutely fine" but had lost two stones in weight.

His first ecstatic words to British reporters after his three-month kidnap, were: "We’re free, we’re free!"

He was released just before 4pm at a secret rendezvous in the Sierra Nevada along with the remaining four Israelis held captive by the National Liberation Army, or ELN.

They had been walking since Friday to get to the rendezvous point for the handover, the Rev Hector Fabio Henao, a member of the humanitarian commission, told reporters.

Gunmen from the ELN kidnapped the five along with three other foreign backpackers from archaeological ruins in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains in September.

One of the hostages, British teenager Matthew Scott, escaped days later. Two other hostages - a German and a Spaniard - were released to the humanitarian commission in November.

Yesterday, two helicopters carrying the humanitarian commission landed on a bare hill in the Sierra Nevada where the hostages were waiting alongside the armed and masked rebels.

Television footage showed one smiling hostage talking on a handheld satellite phone as a rebel, a red-and-black ELN bandanna across his face, walked past carrying an assault rifle.

The Colombian military earlier said it was holding back its rescue operations to allow the handover to proceed after being warned by rebels that the hostages might die in the resulting crossfire.

The tourists had ignored warnings against travel in Colombia, the kidnap capital of the world, with some 3,000 captures per year.