Yard hunts African kidnap woman

Judith Tebbutt, 56, was snatched from the remote Kiwayu Safari Village, close to the Kenyan border with Somalia, by a gang who killed her 58-year-old husband David.

Scotland Yard has confirmed officers have travelled to Kenya to help the country’s authorities.

A spokeswoman said: “A small team of Metropolitan Police Service officers have travelled to Kenya to assist and support the Kenyan authorities with their investigation.

“The Kenyan authorities remain the lead investigators.”

Mr Tebbutt was shot when the gang raided the couple’s beach cottage in the early hours of Sunday.

His wife, believed to be deaf and to wear a double hearing aid, is said to have been bundled into a boat which sped away from the isolated island resort.

There has been speculation that the gang, thought to be from Somalia, are from al-Qaida linked insurgent group al-Shabab.

The Tebbutts, from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, had come from visiting the Masai Mara game reserve and were the resort’s only guests.

Police in Kenya are reported to have arrested a man suspected of being involved in Mr Tebbutt’s murder and the kidnap of his widow.

The Ministry of Defence has refused to comment on reports that British special forces have been drafted in to help the rescue effort, and are compiling information to mount a rescue mission.

The Met Police spokeswoman said the team of officers would also be helping in the repatriation of Mr Tebbutt’s body.

Kiwayu Safari Village has issued a statement, saying everyone at the resort was “devastated” by what had happened.

It said: “We wish to extend our deepest condolences to the Tebbutt family and their many friends. Our thoughts are with them as we pray for Judith’s safe return.

“We are offering every assistance we can to help with the investigation and wish to express our sincere thanks to the Kenyan security services and the British authorities for all that they are doing.”

Consisting of 18 luxury cottages spread along a private beach, the resort is popular among backpackers and celebrities.

The Foreign Office said a team has been deployed to the area 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”, citing previous attacks by Somali militants.

It also warns against piracy, referring to the kidnapping of two British nationals in October 2009 as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania.

Retired couple Paul and Rachel Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, spent 388 days in captivity until they were released last November after a ransom of up to £620,000 was paid.

But the family and friends of Mrs Tebbutt may be forced to wait several days before the kidnappers deliver their demands. Consultant Ben Lopez, who has written the book The Negotiator, said it is now a “waiting game” to see what the gang want.

Mr Lopez, who works for Compass Risk Management which specialises in the prevention and mitigation of kidnap, maritime piracy and extortion, said: “We don’t know if it’s al-Shabab or a regular kidnap-for-ransom.

“In general if it’s a kidnap-for-ransom then frankly the authorities’ hands are tied because no government wants to be seen as negotiating and/or doing business with kidnappers because if it ever got out then no British national would be safe again.”

He speculated that somebody on the inside had probably alerted the kidnappers to the fact that some people were there and the coast was clear to come get them.

Tributes have poured in for Mr Tebbutt, who worked for publisher Faber & Faber and was known for his charity work.

Iain Stevenson, professor of publishing at University College London (UCL), who knew Mr Tebbutt for 15 years and also lives in Bishop’s Stortford, said his death was “an enormous loss to the publishing world”.

“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.”