David Tebbutt: Death Sentence Over Kenya Murder

David Tebbutt was shot dead by a gang of suspected pirates in Kenya before his wife was abducted and taken to Somalia.




Ali Babitu Kololo led a gang to the villa where the Tebbutts were staying

David Tebbutt was shot dead





A Kenyan who led a gang of pirates to a holiday resort where they murdered a British tourist has been sentenced to death for his part in the attack.
Ali Babitu Kololo was found guilty of robbery with violence, two years after the gang burst into David Tebbutt's villa in the remote Kiwayu Safari Village, shooting him dead before kidnapping his wife Judith.
She was held hostage in Somalia for more than six months before eventually being released.
Kololo, who was sacked from his job at the resort several months before Mr Tebbutt was killed, was convicted following an investigation by the Kenyan authorities and SO15, the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.
In addition to the death penalty, Kololo was given seven years in jail for his part in Mrs Tebbutt's abduction.
"I am innocent," he said after the sentence was announced. "Let the court do what it wants to do. I have been victimised in this, since I was also kidnapped."
Judith Tebbutt was staying with her husband David in a grass-woven hut
Commander Richard Walton, head of SO15, said: "Kololo played a key role in this murder and kidnap, bringing the attackers to the resort and helping them search for victims.
"The Kenyan investigation remains ongoing and we are committed to helping them bring David's killers and those who put Judith through such a long ordeal to justice.
"I'd like to pay tribute to Judith, her son Oliver and their family who have all shown extraordinary courage and dignity.
"The investigation team have also shown great skill and tenacity in assisting this Kenyan investigation."
The Tebbutts, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, travelled to Kiwayu Safari Village after visiting the Masai Mara game reserve in September 2011.
The beach at Kiwayu Safari Village resort where Mr Tebbutt was killed
Mrs Tebbutt, who is believed to have been freed after her family paid an £800,000 ransom, is said to have felt nervous about security after arriving to find no other guests were staying at the resort.
She was allegedly forced to run along the beach and was hit on the back of the head with a rifle before being bundled into a boat.
She was only told of her husband's death two weeks after she was kidnapped.
Kenya has not carried out the death penalty for 26 years and most sentences for death row prisoners are commuted to life imprisonment.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We welcome efforts by the Kenyan authorities to bring those responsible for the kidnap of Judith Tebbutt and the murder of her husband, David, to justice.
"Today's news that Ali Babitu Kololo has been found guilty of robbery with violence is a positive development, but the wider Kenya investigations continue."