ITN exclusive: Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates, have used their first full television interview in captivity to congratulate David Cameron on his election victory and to seek the backing of Britain’s new government in securing their freedom.
Paul Chandler, a 60-year-old retired civil engineer, said: “I’d like to say congratulations to David Cameron first. And as new prime minister, we desperately need him to make a definitive public statement of the government’s attitude to us.
“If the government is not prepared to help, then they must say so, because the gangsters’ expectations and hopes have been raised at the thought of a new government and there might be a different approach.”
The retired couple from Tunbridge Wells were enjoying the yachting holiday of a lifetime last October when they were kidnapped by pirates in the Indian Ocean just off the Seychelles, hundreds of miles from Somalia.
They have been held for more than seven months and reveal on Channel 4 News tonight that almost half their time in captivity has been spent away from each other in solitary confinement.
At first the pirate gang demanded a huge ransom for their release, though they have since said they are open to negotiation. It is official British government policy not to pay ransoms to kidnappers.
