Family’s joy as kidnapped Birkenhead oil worker comes home

Jun 17 2009 by Vicki Kellaway, Wallasey News

THE family of a Merseyside dad kidnapped by pirates were celebrating his homecoming.

Matthew Maguire was due to fly home yesterday after spending nine months as a hostage in Nigeria.

Delays with the 35-year-old’s flight to Manchester airport meant the family were still not reunited when the Wirral News went to press.

But his partner Emma Dean said she was overjoyed the professional diver was finally on his way home.

Mr Maguire, who lives in Birkenhead, had to undergo thorough medical checks and a full debrief after being freed on Friday.

He was among 27 oil workers snatched at gunpoint from a boat taking them to work on an oil rig in the Niger Delta last September.

Ms Dean and children Ellie, 11, Charlie, nine, and Matthew, three, endured months of receiving little but the odd letter Mr Maguire was allowed to send home.

He was the sole hostage after his fellow British captive, boat captain Robin Barry Hughes, was released on health grounds in April.

Ms Dean said: “I was so excited when he called to say he was out. I just screamed down the phone at him. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a prank call.

“But now he’s out, I just want him home. It’s gone on for far too long now.

“I won’t believe he’s safe until he’s standing in our living room.”

Mr Maguire has been praised for putting Mr Hughes’s life above his own.

He told press in Nigeria how he begged his captors to set the other man free.

Mr Hughes, 60, from Dover in Kent had a severe infection in his right food and circulatory problems which Mr Maguire feared could kill him.

He said: “I was really worried about the captain. He wasn’t well. He wasn’t breathing right.

“I told the militants if they didn’t release him he was going to die.

“They didn’t want to release him but the villagers helped put pressure on the militants saying: “He needs to go to hospital” and we got them to release him.”

Mr Hughes’ brother Simon, 48, praised Mr Maguire’s selfless actions.

He said: “It was such a relief to us that Mr Maguire was there and could see how bad Barry was.

“We just want to thank him for everything he did.”