Met police join investigation into Kenya killing of Briton

Speculation that David and Judith Tebbutt from Hertfordshire were attacked by gang from al-Qaida-linked group A team of Metropolitan police officers has been dispatched to Kenya to aid the investigation into the murder of a British holidaymaker and the kidnap of his wife at the remote Kiwayu Safari Village resort, close to the Somalian border. The team arrived amid speculation that David and Judith Tebbutt from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, were attacked by a gang from Somalia and from the al-Qaida linked insurgent group, al-Shabab. Scotland Yard said the Kenyan authorities “remain the lead investigators”. The gang raided the Tebbutts’ beach house in the early hours of Sunday morning. The couple were the hotel’s only guests, having just arrived following a week in the Masai Mara game reserve. Attackers are said to have shot the 58-year-old, a finance director at the publisher Faber & Faber, and sped from the isolated resort near Lamu island by boat having abducted his wife, 56. As the hunt for her continued, police in Kenya were reported to have arrested a man suspected of being involved. A search and rescue operation is under way but the Ministry of Defence refused to confirm reports British special forces had been drafted in. Kiwayu Safari Village said everyone at the resort was “devastated” and sent their “deepest condolences” to the Tebbutts’ son, Oliver, 25, family and friends. “Our thoughts are with them as we pray for Judith’s safe return.” The Foreign Office said a team had been deployed from the high commission in Nairobi, and called for those involved in the kidnapping to “show compassion”. The FCO warns against “all but essential travel to within 30km of Kenya’s border with Somalia”. Ben Lopez, a kidnap-for-ransom consultant and author of the book The Negotiator, said it was now a “waiting game” to see what the gang want. Lopez, who works for Compass Risk Management which specialises in the prevention and mitigation of incidents of kidnap, maritime piracy and extortion, said: “We don’t know if it’s al-Shabab or a regular kidnap-for-ransom”. He said it was likely the abduction was planned, rather than opportunistic, and it could be some days before the kidnappers got in touch. Tributes have been paid to David Tebbutt, who was a member of the Book Trade Charity, which offers support and grants to those in the book trade. “He was a lovely chap, he was on the grants committee. He was a very caring person and very concerned about the people that we were supporting financially,” said the charity’s chief executive, David Hicks. The couple had visited Africa many times, said Iain Stevenson, professor of publishing at University College London, who described his friend’s death as an “an enormous loss to the publishing world”. “He loved travel, he was always going on holidays, he got teased about his exotic holidays,” he said. “He was just basically a very kind, modest, unassuming man, very funny, with a wicked sense of humour, but he was very dedicated to his family. “The whole reason he moved to Bishop’s Stortford was so his son could go to Bishop’s Stortford College. It must be awful for them [the family], particularly their son.” Kenya Africa Somalia Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.