David Simpson returns home (From Gazette & Herald)

David Simpson returns home

10:50pm Saturday 8th September 2012 in News

THE North Yorkshire pilot locked up in an African jail after stumbling across the remains of massacre victims has returned home to England.

David Simpson, 24, of Gillamoor near Kirkbymoorside, landed at Heathrow today, more than five months after being jailed in the Central African Republic.

Mr Simpson had been held in a cell in the CAR capital, Bangui, after being charged with murder. He had found the corpses of 13 gold miners near where he was working as a bush pilot for a hunting firm.

Thirteen of his colleagues, arrested with him and his Swedish boss in March, were also cleared of any involvement in the killings. It is believed they were the work of the Lord's Resistance Army attack, led by warlord Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes against humanity.

Mr Simpson's brother Paul had told The Press on Friday afternoon that David had suffered a fresh setback, being stopped at the airport in the CAR as his flight was about to leave. However he did manage to leave the country on Friday night, and landed at Heathrow on Saturday morning.