Read A Long Walk Home: One Woman's Story of Kidnap, Hostage, Loss - and Survival Online
Authors: Judith Tebbutt
A Long Walk Home: One Woman's Story of Kidnap, Hostage, Loss - and Survival (33 page)
Thanks to my amazing son Ollie, who gave me hope, inspiration and motivation to keep walking towards my release.
To Saz, who supported Ollie throughout.
To my family – thank you for being there.
Richard T. Kelly, who used his skill and patience to help me turn my words and thoughts into the book I had hoped for. You are a kind and sensitive man.
Neil Hibberd, Senior Investigating Officer, for demonstrating thoroughness, professionalism and tenacity in seeking justice.
To all my friends who have played their part in helping me return. A special thanks to my very best friend Annie, who has witnessed many tears and much laughter, and has provided me with a precious escape. Also to Sandra and Janet, for their joy in life which is so infectious.
Shelley, my Pilates coach, whose teaching was (unbeknownst to her) vital to me even in captivity, helping to keep my body and mind as healthy as they could be.
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains, who were exceptionally
generous
–
both
to me and to my family – in their offer of travel arrangements subsequent to my release.
A big thank you to Stephen Page for his support and
encouragement
throughout the writing of this book and also his support to Ollie during my captivity.
To all at Faber for their encouragement and kindness, but especially to: Julian Loose, who was the first person at Faber to hear my story and who gave me the courage to write the book; Rachel Alexander, for her guidance and patience; Donna Payne, who took my suggestions and created a powerful jacket cover; Anne Owen for her work as desk editor; Eleanor Crow for her artwork; and also Jill Burrows for her copy-editing of the manuscript.
Jude Tebbutt
May 2013
Judith Tebbutt was born in 1954 in Ulverston, Cumbria. She has four brothers and a sister, and her mother and siblings still live in Ulverston. Judith met her husband David in 1979 while they were both living in Zambia. They married in 1985 and had their son Ollie in 1986. Judith trained as a mental health social worker, qualifying in 1999, and worked in a community drug and alcohol team before being employed in a
medium-secure
psychiatric hospital, where she was the senior social worker in the women’s service. Judith continues to live in the same house that she shared with David for twenty years.
David and Jude together on the morning of their flight from the Masai Mara to Kiwayu Island via Nairobi, 10 September 2011.
Jude and David by the airstrip in Nairobi, awaiting their plane to Kiwayu, 10 September 2011.
Jude tries out the hammock in the banda on arrival at Kiwayu Safari Village, 10 September 2011.
A beachside
banda
and communal building at Kiwayu Safari Village, seen from the sea: ‘There was simply
nobody else around
… the silence was very pronounced, a ‘peace and quiet’ that felt just a shade remote, even intimidating.’
The beachfront at Kiwayu Safari Village, 10 September 2011. ‘Rather than a perk, it struck me as a slight cause for concern, that we should be so much alone in this rather lonely place … The cove was picture-postcard beautiful, but quite deserted.’
‘The Horn of Africa’: map showing the location of Somalia within the East African peninsula, and highlighting the key locations where Jude was kidnapped, held, and finally released.
Armed police patrol a stretch of beach near Kiwayu Safari Village, 12 September 2011.
Metropolitan Police officers inspect the crime scene at Kiwayu Safari Village, Tuesday 13 September, 2011. In the centre of the group (wearing a grey suit) is Senior Investigating Officer Neil Hibberd.
The layout of the ‘Big House’ compound where Jude was held for two periods: September– November 2011, and November 2011– January 2012. ‘Within those metal gates the first sensations to strike me were of searing heat and hard light bouncing off the thick stone walls of the enclosed yard.’
The layout of Jude’s room, ‘a gloomy room, maybe fifteen feet square, with a high ceiling’ in the ‘Big House’: ‘Nailed drape curtains masked the walls. There were no windows that I could see, and only a little natural light seeping in through breeze blocks set in the wall … The bed was of a size suitable for a small child … During the day I could just about cope with the gloom made by the closed, curtained shutters in my room. The pitch black of night was a different order.’
The layout of the ‘Horrible House’ compound where Jude was held for three periods, in November 2011 and twice in January 2012.
The layout of Jude’s room in the ‘Horrible House’: ‘In it was nothing but a table at the end and a bed base of wooden slats on a frame, standing unsteadily on an uneven concrete floor. The roof was tin, the walls appeared to be pale clay … There was one shuttered window, about twelve inches square. I felt desolation creep over me.’