Jailed pilot tells of his frustration (From York Press)

Jailed pilot David Simpson tells of his frustration

10:32am Monday 23rd July 2012 in Ryedale news

A NORTH Yorkshire pilot who has spent almost four months in an African jail after finding massacre victims has spoken from his cell about his “frustration”.

David Simpson, 24, of Gillamoor near Kirkbymoorside, has been held in the Central African Republic (CAR) since March after being accused of murder following his grim discovery of 13 mutilated bodies while working for a hunting company.

He reported the find to police but became an official suspect and remains locked up in a spartan, graffiti-ridden cell at Ngarabara prison, where he is the only Westerner among 670 inmates and said he keeps a home-made baseball bat by the door for protection.

In a video filmed for the Sunday Telegraph, published online yesterday, the former Ryedale School and Lady Lumley’s School pupil said: “I didn’t do it, honestly, but I think most people now know I didn’t do it.”

Smiling ruefully and wearing a short-sleeved shirt, he said: “It’s really hard, but seriously, I’m okay. There’s nothing really bad. It’s just frustration at nothing moving. Before, it was frustration because people were saying we were murderers and there was no evidence, and things looked bad because of that.

“Now everybody, including the local authorities here, are saying it’s obvious I didn’t murder these people. I don’t know what more has to happen for them to say ‘okay, you can go free’.

Hopefully things can move forward, but this is Central Africa, which is even slower than the rest of Africa. Fingers crossed, it will move forward.”

The Lord’s Resistance Army is believed to be behind the murders.