THE fiancee of freed bomb suspect Jimmy Lee has spoken of their two-year "hell" in Saudi Arabia.
Gillian Barton was speaking at her parents' home in Middleton Drive, Whitefield, after the release on Friday of her 40-year-old fiance.
Jimmy is one of six Britons who say they were tortured into confessing their involvement in a number of bombings which resulted in the death of fellow Brit Christopher Rodway in 2000. They spent 30 months in a Saudi jail, much of it in solitary confinement, before flying home.
Gillian (29), a former Philips High School pupil, greeted Jimmy and the other men at Heathrow Airport after leaving the country herself only seven weeks ago. Jimmy is now staying with her.
She said yesterday: "It was unbelievable. They looked like they had come out of a Nazi concentration camp.
"I have spent two-and-a-half years working towards this and wondering if I was doing enough to help. This was the first time I realised how much I had done. I had visited Jimmy throughout his time in jail but it was still a shock to see him home."
A trained nurse, Gillian moved to Riyadh six-and-a-half years ago and soon afterwards met Jimmy, who fitted prosthetic limbs.
They became engaged after two years and lived together with fellow accused Brit, James Cottle, in a compound populated by many Westerners.
The couple's nightmare began when they saw three men appear on Saudi television admitting their involvement in the fatal bombing of Christopher Rodway's car.
Gillian said: "We were friends with these people as Riyadh is a very close community. At the time we both wondered how someone could confess to something they didn't do. But soon after Jimmy was doing exactly the same. Before this we lived a normal life but then the next thing our home was ransacked and Jimmy was arrested.
The Saudis claimed Jimmy, who is from Wales, and his friends were involved in an alcohol "turf war" but Gillian dismissed the suggestion and said she believed it was the work of fanatical Muslims who had something against Westerners.
"Jimmy had no choice but to confess," Gillian added. "He was physically, emotionally and psychologically tortured, right up until he was released."
She said the men were not ready to speak about what went on during their time in jail until they had met up with each other and sought legal advice. But she said the experience had left them "destroyed men".
Gillian added: "Jimmy has been through absolute hell. He has lost around half his body weight. I don't know how he has managed to stay so strong, but he still has his sense of humour. If he told someone what it was like they wouldn't believe him: it just doesn't make sense. We have talked about it since he came home and it was worse than even I could have imagined."
Gillian said that although she was able to visit Jimmy every five weeks they were unable to speak about the torture as they were always accompanied by an interrogator.
"I just had to live day-to-day. I was working a 12-hour shift and on my day off I was either visiting Jimmy, speaking with the Saudis or finding him books to read. "
The six Britons were released from jail after signing an apology to King Fahd and being granted clemency by the Saudi Government.
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