A British holidaymaker captured by pirates from a remote east African island resort is due home today.
Judith Tebbutt, whose husband was killed by the kidnappers, was released from captivity yesterday after a ransom was reportedly paid by relatives.
She was taken from the Kiwayu Safari Village, close to the border with Somalia, last September by a gang who killed her husband David.
Reports today suggest that Mrs Tebbutt’s family paid a ransom of $1.3 million for her release.
Farmhand Ali Babitu Kololo, 25, has been charged in connection with the attack. He is said to have claimed he was forced to co-operate with the gang at gunpoint and had voluntarily gone to the police the next day to report the crime.
Mrs Tebbutt was reunited with her son Oliver at the British High Commission in Nairobi and is expected to return to the UK today.
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.”