Hostage recounts kidnapping ordeal for first time

By Ewan Foskett Wednesday, June 27, 2012
2:30 PM

A BRITISH woman snatched by pirates and held for over six months after a raid that left her husband dead has spoken publicly of the ordeal for the first time.

The 57-year-old has been a social worker at Kneesworth House Hospital, near Bassingbourn, for seven years and was giving evidence via video-link at the trial of the only person charged over her abduction.

Ali Babitu Kololo, 25, faces charges of violent robbery and kidnapping at the court in Lamu, Kenya.

The hotel worker has admitted helping the raiders to the room but claims he only did so after the pirates kidnapped him.

Mrs Tebbutt, of Bishop’s Stortford, relived the moment she was taken from the remote Kiwayu Safari Village, close to the African country’s border with Somalia.

She said soon after she and her husband arrived for their two-week holiday she felt nervous about security. They were the only guests.

Recounting the night of the raid, she said: “We just got straight into bed and when we slept, we normally started off sleeping holding hands, we always did that.

“The next thing I was aware of was David. I remember him shouting ‘What the