Somali hostage Judith Tebbutt: The call home that says ‘I’m so happy to be free’

A BRITISH woman who has spent the past six months as a hostage after a kidnapping raid which claimed the life of her husband said she was “looking forward” to seeing her son Oliver after being freed by her captors in Somalia.

Judith Tebbutt was released yesterday morning after a six-figure ransom was reportedly raised by her relatives. She said she was relieved to be on her way back home after an ordeal that resulted in “very hard psychological moments”.

The 56-year-old from Hertfordshire was snatched on 11 September last year from the remote Kiwayu Safari Village on the Kenyan coast, close to the border with Somalia.

Yesterday Mrs Tebbutt said she was not told that the six-strong armed gang had shot dead her 58-year-old husband David until two weeks after her capture,

“I’m very relieved to have been released. Seven months is a long time. Under the circumstances, with my husband passing away, it made it harder,” she said.

“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.”

Mrs Tebbutt said she was still coming to terms with the loss of her husband, a finance director at publishers Faber & Faber. She said: “I feel extremely sad. Very, very sad indeed. He was a good man. That was very unfortunate. Really horrible. But you’ve just got to pick up the pieces… and move on.

“I didn’t know he’d died until about, I think it was two weeks from my capture. I just assumed he was alive, but then my son told me he’d died. That was difficult. And it must have been hard for my son as well, very hard.

Mrs Tebbutt was reunited with her son at the British High Commission in Nairobi and is expected to return to the UK today.

In a statement, she said: “I am, of course hugely relieved to at last be free, and overjoyed to be reunited with my son Ollie.

“This, however, is a time when my joy at being safe again is overwhelmed by my immense grief, shared by Ollie and the wider family, following David’s passing in September last year. My family and I now need to grieve properly.

“I would like to thank everybody who has supported Ollie throughout this ordeal. I am now looking forward to returning home to family and friends whom I have missed so very much.”

A spokesman for the High Commission in Nairobi said: “She is in a safe place. We are giving her assistance and discussing how best to proceed.”

Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman said Mrs Tebbutt’s plight had been discussed at no fewer than 20 meetings of the Cobra emergency committee, but reiterated the UK government’s position that it does not pay ransoms or “facilitate concessions to hostage takers”.

Asked whether officials had advised the family not to pay a ransom, he replied: “All I can say is that we have been in close contact throughout.

“We have obviously been providing support to the family and been in close contact with the family throughout and have been meeting regularly to discuss the case.”

It is believed a private security firm helped secure Mrs Tebbutt’s release, with a ransom paid to her captors on Monday or Tuesday.

A pirate, who identified himself as Ahmed, said yesterday that a ransom had been dropped by air, although it was not clear who had made the payment.

He said around £500,000 had been received and another £88,000 went to brokers and handlers, before Mrs Tebbutt was handed over to regional fficials in Adado in central Somalia. Television footage showed her running towards her plane bound for Kenya, wearing a green headscarf.

The Tebbutts, from Bishop’s Stortford, had arrived at the safari village after visiting the Masai Mara game reserve and were the resort’s only guests. After her husband was killed, Mrs Tebbutt was taken to Somalia by speedboat.

Speaking before she was released, she told ITV News: “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.”

Mrs Tebbutt’s mother, Gladys Atkinson, 90, from Ulverston, Cumbria, said: “At the moment I just can’t believe it. It’s been six months and I just can’t wait to see her.

Her sister, Carol McDougall, 51, added: “The last six months have been very worrying for Ollie, her son, and losing David who was such a lovely man.

“I did believe this would happen because Jude is very strong, she is a strong person.”

Rev Toby Marchand, 65, of St Michael’s Church, in the family’s hometown, said: “We have lit a candle and said a prayer for Mrs Tebbutt every single day since it happened. Oliver is a remarkable young man. This has been such an ordeal for him but he has always spoken in terms of ‘when’ his mother is rescued not ‘if’.”

Paul and Rachel Chandler, who spent 388 days in captivity after they were abducted at gunpoint by Somali pirates in October 2009, expressed hope that Mrs Tebbutt could try to return to as normal a life as possible.

“I hope she will have an opportunity to pick up the pieces of her life, and deal with the loss she has had,” Mr Chandler said.

Rick Blears, a spokesman for Save Our Seafarers, the global anti-Somali piracy campaign, said: “We welcome the news that Judith Tebbutt has been released Her release has highlighted the fact that the media spotlight is firmly on kidnapped civilians rather than any of the 233 working seafarers who are currently in captivity. Many families are just far too poor to pay.”