I cried and begged Ken not to go to Iraq... now I'm empty inside

THE distraught wife of Baghdad hostage Ken Bigley last night told how she begged him not to travel to Iraq.

But the Liverpudlian engineer was determined to go back one last time—so they'd never have money worries again as they carved out a new life together and tried to start a family.

In faltering English, Ken's Thai bride Sombat movingly opened her heart and told us: "We love each other so much. For me he is my King. He is everything I want in a man.

"I asked him many times, ‘Please don't go to Iraq, it is dangerous'.

"I begged him and cried but he was always confident. He told me not to worry and he would have enough money to live in Thailand for life.

"He was sure he was going to be safe. He said the company he worked for had security guards.

"The last time I saw him he was so happy. He told me he would be back in a few months."

Ken, 62, and 35-year-old Sombat— his second wife—spoke on the phone every day when he was away.

The last call was on Wednesday, September 15, the day before he and two American colleagues were kidnapped from their house by armed terrorists.

"Kenneth seemed so happy," recalled Sombat, speaking at her sister's home in Salaya, 15 miles outside the Thai capital Bangkok.

"He said ‘I love you, I'm so homesick and I miss you so much. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in Thailand'.

"He filled me with so much happiness."

The first Sombat heard of the kidnap was a call from the British embassy.

"I collapsed on the floor," she told us. "I could not stop crying. I didn't understand what was happening.

"I had so much anguish. I was all alone. I didn't know what to do. I just sat in a room and I held myself. I wanted so much to hold Kenneth and make him feel safe.

Heart

"My inside was empty. I wanted to help him so much but I didn't know what to do."

The screw was turned on Sombat's agony when the terror gang, led by ruthless Jordanian Musab al-Zarqawi, released videos of Ken pleading for his life after they had beheaded his friends.

He urged the authorities to grant his captors' demands and free women prisoners held in Iraq.

The effect on Sombat was devastating. "When I saw the pictures of my husband on television I cried like a child," she shivered. "I was helpless. I wanted to save him but there is nothing I can do.

"To see him in so much pain with these bad men standing over him, I cannot tell you how I feel inside. It is like someone has stolen my heart and left my life empty."

Earlier yesterday Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called Sombat and is believed to have assured her everything possible was being done to secure Ken's release.

That followed two phone calls from Tony Blair to the Bigley family in Walton, Liverpool.

The PM told Ken's 86-year-old mum Lil and brothers Stanley and Philip: "This is a ghastly dilemma, we have to be prepared for the worst. But we have no choice, we cannot negotiate."

However, as Ken's 54-year-old brother Paul last night begged the government to send HIM to Baghdad in a mercy bid—Sombat also pleaded for the Premier to do more.

With Paul due to address a Labour Against The War fringe meeting today, on the eve of the party's Brighton conference, Sombat insisted: "The Prime Minister has not done enough to help.

"I have been told they try their best. But I want them to do anything to get my husband home.

"I don't want him to die like this. Kenneth is lying there in the nest of criminals and the government is doing nothing to secure him."

Sombat choked back tears as she recalled how they met at a Bangkok restaurant 15 years ago and wed eight years later.

They set up a family farmstead to grow rice and mangoes and raise children in her remote village, Kab Cheung, 280 miles away on the Cambodia border.

Gentle

Petite Sombat, whose Thai nickname ‘Lek' means ‘Little One', said: "Kenneth was very good looking. And he is a very nice man.

"I could tell that he was a gentle, kind and decent man. He had very beautiful eyes.

"I felt very safe with him. He was a gentleman from the beginning. There are many men who have bad thoughts and come to Thailand. Kenneth was never like that."

The couple married with a traditional ceremony in Kab Cheung.

"My family loved him from the start," said Sombat. "He did not care about the different culture. We kissed and we were very happy.

"We love each other so much.

"He is old but he has a young heart. When you see him you see that there is no age difference between us.

"After the marriage we go to the UK for a year. I met his family, they were all very nice to me. They accept me as a part of his family very well.

"Liverpool is a cold city but the family are so nice I did not feel the cold. Kenneth took care of me. He made sure that I was cared for. And we are wanting children.

"We have been trying for so long and I know he will be a good father like he is a good husband.

"He has never done anyone any harm. If the people in Iraq could know he wants to help people they would let him go.

"He is a man of wonderful heart. These people need to look into his eyes and see a man who is good. I want my husband to be safe and back in my arms.

"Without Kenneth my life is stopped. He IS my life."