Wife's plea for Iraq hostage

The wife of a British hostage still missing in Iraq pleaded today with his kidnappers to return him home.

On the third anniversary of Alan McMenemy's abduction, Rosaleen McMenemy urged those holding him to show "mercy and compassion".

The security guard from Glasgow was snatched by gunmen along with three other guards and the IT expert they were protecting exactly three years ago.

His protection target, Peter Moore, was released alive in December last year, while the bodies of the three other guards have been returned to Britain.

Mr McMenemy is feared dead, but the kidnappers, an Iraqi Shia militia group, have yet to provide any proof.

His wife told the BBC: "It's now been three years since he's been held captive, which is 1,096 days.

"This is far too long for myself and our two children and I would ask those holding him to please show mercy and compassion and return him to us immediately and unconditionally.

"You've showed compassion by releasing his four colleagues and I would ask you to do the same for my family to bring closure to this."

Mr McMenemy was taken from a finance ministry building in Baghdad three years ago. The militants were posing as police.

His wife spoke of their last time together before Mr McMenemy went off to work in Baghdad.

"We'd spent the weekend with the children in Edinburgh, it was our wedding anniversary, we spent a couple of days there, it was a lovely couple of days, it was very nice," she said.

"And Alan was just looking forward to coming back from work and maybe having a family holiday. It would have been lovely."

After arriving back home, Mr Moore described being beaten, shackled and subjected to mock executions.

He paid tribute to his security guards, saying: "Certainly without that help and advice I definitely wouldn't be stood here today."