Kidnapped farmer speaks of ordeal

Mr Gregor says he will not be seeking another bride online

An Australian farmer who flew to Mali in West Africa believing he was set to marry a woman he had met on the internet - only to find himself taken hostage and held to ransom - has told the BBC about his ordeal.

Des Gregor, a sheep farmer from outside Adelaide in south Australia, had been hoping to meet up with and marry a woman named Natasha, who he believed was a Liberian refugee in her 20s.

But on his arrival in the Malian capital, Bamako, he was taken hostage with his kidnappers demanding $86,000 ransom.

Mr Gregor told BBC World Service's Outlook programme that the isolated nature of farming meant it was difficult to meet people, so he had turned to the internet to find his would-be wife.

"I didn't really commit myself to her - I thought, 'that can come once she comes out here'," he said.

Machete and pistol

Mr Gregor had first met "Natasha" in December last year, and they exchanged photographs.

Then in April, he received an email from her "dropping the bomb" that she had a deposit of gold as a dowry, and if they married, Mr Gregor would receive US$86,000.

Mr Gregor - who said he had twice before been deceived by women he had met on the internet - said this initially made him think he was being scammed.

You've got to be very, very careful - and if anyone asks you for money, turn and run Des Gregor's internet dating advice

"From then on I trod very cautiously," he explained.

"But from then on, every question I asked her, she had a legitimate answer for - therefore I thought she was genuine."

He finally decided to make the journey to Mali in July.

"It was a bit of a slack period in our work, so I thought, 'now is the ideal opportunity to go and check her out and come back with her'," he said.

When he arrived at Bamako airport, he was escorted straight through customs and put in a car - believing he was being driven to the flat where "Natasha" was waiting.

Instead, waiting in the room in the two-story building he was taken to were two men, one armed with a machete while the other had a pistol.

"At the start, I thought they were playing a practical joke on me - until they started demanding the money," he said.

"Then, when I handed them the money, they asked me where the rest of it was. I told them that was all I had, because I knew that Australian currency wasn't any use to them."

Brother's help

They then made Mr Gregor strip naked and lie down, believing he had the money hidden somewhere on his body.

"After that, they bound my legs while they went through my suitcase and pulled everything out of my luggage bags," he added.

"It was absolutely terrifying. They were demanding money all the time. When they found my credit cards, they had me ring the bank to try to get Pin numbers. They were unsuccessful, but then they started making him ring farmers back home."

Mr Gregor made a phone call to his brother, who immediately guessed something was wrong.

After being held hostage for 12 days - during which the kidnappers threatened to cut his arms and legs off with the machete - Mr Gregor was freed through his brother alerting the Australian authorities.

"Basically, they [the kidnappers] wanted the money to come through Western Union, but my brother told me that the only way that people would be prepared to give the money was if it went through the Canadian embassy," he said.

"It took me two to three days to convince them, and in the end they agreed to it. The next day it was sent.

"They sent me to the embassy. Once I'd got the money, I was to go to a cathedral to meet them. I was prepared to do what they said, but the people in the embassy had other ideas and once I got there, they would not let me out."

Mr Gregor now offers the following advice to anyone seeking a bride on the internet.

"You've got to be very, very careful - and if anyone asks you for money, turn and run."