A Kenyan hotel worker was today formally charged over the abduction of British tourist Judith Tebbutt and the shooting of her husband David.
Ali Babitu Kololo, 25, appeared in court on the island of Lamu charged with kidnapping and violent robbery.
The couple were attacked on September 11 during their holiday at a remote Kenyan luxury beach resort.
In the dock: Ali Babitu Kololo, dressed in green, says he was forced to help the pirates attack the holiday resort
Prosecutors said they believed the father of three was part of a gang of six armed with AK-47 rifles who burst into the Tebbutts' beach cottage at the Kiwayu Safari Village near the border with Somalia.
Kololo and his unidentified alleged accomplices then stole a handbag, cash and passports from the couple before shooting dead Mr Tebbutt, 58, and kidnapping his wife, 56, it is alleged.
Barefoot: Kololo was forced to walk a mile to court without shoes and claims he has been tortured. He says he feared for his life after being ordered by pirates to help
Today Kololo, a former worker at the secluded hotel, admitted he had led the raiders to the site in the moments before the midnight attack.
But in an impassioned speech from the dock he claimed he did so only after the gang of unidentified Somali criminals held him up at gunpoint.
Speaking in his native Swahili, shaking Kololo claimed the raiders drove him first to the town of Odo in Somalia last Saturday before sailing out to sea and ordering him to direct them after dark to the hotel where he had previously been employed as a maintenance worker.
He said: ‘The men found me as I was cutting down trees in the forest. I was with a colleague but he ran away and the gunmen abducted me. They took me to Odo and from there the hijackers took me deep out in the sea with a boat.
‘At around 11pm they took me towards the hotel. They were armed and forced me to show them the way.’
Gesticulating wildly as he addressed state prosecutor Caleb Mutonyi, Kololo admitted he had directed the gang to the Kiwayu hotel, which lies around 30 miles from Somalia.
But he told the court that at that stage he did not know the Tebbutts had checked into the resort and said he neither entered the couple's cottage nor heard the fatal gunshot which killed Mr Tebbutt.
Protesting his innocence: Kololo is led away after the court hearing on the island of Lamu
Instead the devout Muslim claimed he fled his captors as they landed on the beach before handing himself into police the following day.
He said: ‘When we landed on the beach it was dark and I ran away into the bushes. They would have killed me had I refused to go with them and I did what I did to save my own life.
‘I'm not a bad man. If I was I would not have surrendered to police and informed them.’
Kololo's statement about his actions on the night of September is the most vivid description yet of the moments before the Tebbutts were attacked.
The couple, from Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire, had arrived at the Kiwayu Safari village just hours before the raiders struck.
'They would have killed me had I refused to go with them and I did what I did to save my own life. I'm not a bad man'
Mr Tebbutt, a publishing executive, died in their grass-woven beach hut after being shot in the chest as he apparently resisted the group.
His wife, a deaf social worker, was then bundled into a boat which headed towards Somalia.
Kololo was arrested on September 11 over the incident. He today pleaded not guilty to both charges against him but was remanded in custody. His speech to the court came after a clerk laid out the charges against him.
The two counts, which do not include murder, represent the state's belief that Kololo was involved in the death of Mr Tebbutt but not necessarily that he was himself directly responsible for the murder.
The suspect was handcuffed to two other defendants from unconnected cases as he was led to the building from the island's police station.
He was guarded by several armed officers for the mile-long walk before being seated on a bench at the back of the public gallery.
Barefoot, and dressed in grey trousers and a baggy green sports T-shirt, he appeared nervous and stressed.
Speaking afterwards, the suspect claimed he had been tortured by police. He said: ‘They beat and tortured me. They hit my manhood and they beat my stomach.
‘Then they refused to let me go to the hospital. They want me to admit that I am guilty but I am innocent so that is something I could never do.’
Kololo was ordered to reappear for a further hearing on October 25.
His lawyer George Wakahiu later said he planned to apply for bail. He said: ‘He said he was not part of the gang himself but was kidnapped and that he is a victim of what happened.’
Reports at the weekend suggested Mrs Tebbutt had been repeatedly moved by her abductors, who are expected to demand a ransom for her release.
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