Kenyan hotel worker sentenced to death for his part in Judith Tebbutt kidnap

A man has been sentenced to death in Kenya after he was found guilty of being part of a gang of pirates who held a British tourist hostage and killed her husband.

Hotel worker Ali Babitu Kololo, 27, guided the kidnappers to the remote villa where David and Judith Tebbutt were staying on an island in Kenya's Lamu archipelago, The Guardian reports.

He was found guilty of robbery with violence and kidnapping with intent to cause murder.

Kololo was sentenced to death but as Kenya has abolished execution, he is like to spend the rest of his life in jail.

David Tebbutt, 58, was shot and killed when the pirates burst into the couple's villa in September 2011. His wife Judith was abducted and taken to Somalia where she was held for six months before being released.

Kololo is the first to be convicted for the attack.

A Foreign Office spokesman told the BBC: "We welcome efforts by the Kenyan authorities to bring those responsible for the kidnap of Judith Tebbutt and the murder of her husband, David, to justice.

"Today's news that Ali Babitu Kololo has been found guilty of robbery with violence is a positive development, but the wider Kenya investigations continue."

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