‘All I can tell you is I have very short time left’ - Bigley’s final words

A VIDEOTAPE of the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley appeared yesterday on an Islamist website, showing the civil engineer pleading that he wanted “to live a simple life” moments before he was decapitated.

The tape appeared two days after Mr Bigley’s family said it had proof that the 62-year-old civil engineer from Liverpool was dead.

The tape showed Mr Bigley, dressed in an orange prison-style jump suit and seated in front of seven armed, hooded men.

Behind them was a banner of the feared Tawhid and Jihad group, the extremist organisation which has claimed responsibility for suicide attacks and beheadings of Westerners.

Bigley made a brief statement, saying: “I am not a difficult person. I am a simple man who wants to live a simple life.”

He then told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that “more than ever I need your help”.

“Here I am again, Mr Blair,” Mr Bigley added. “Very, very close to the end of my life, you do not appear to have done anything at all to help me.” He said his captors’ patience “is wearing thin, and they are very, very serious people”.

“Please, please give them what they require - freedom of their women from the Abu Ghraib prison,” Mr Bigley said calmly.

“I beg you ... British people, more then ever I need your help, more than ever I need your voices, to go out in the street and to demand a better life for the females and the women who are imprisoned in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. All I can tell you now is that I have very short time left.”

One of the hooded men then spoke, saying the kidnappers extended the deadline for Mr Bigley’s death to allow time for coalition authorities to release all female prisoners held in Abu Ghraib prison.

The speaker said that “because Britain is not serious in releasing our sisters, there is nothing further for this malicious Briton than the sword”.

Suddenly the speaker drew a knife from his belt, and three of the others grabbed Mr Bigley. The men shoved Mr Bigley to the floor and cut off his head, which the killer then lifted for viewers to see.

There were conflicting accounts yesterday of how long Mr Bigley had managed to escape his captors.

Initially reports suggested he had only managed to evade his kidnappers for around 30 minutes.

A masked gunman claiming to know the kidnappers said Mr Bigley had managed to hide for 12 hours, before being found the next morning in a deserted area carrying a gun.