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NORTH-EAST MARINE SENT SECRET MESSAGE FROM PRISON CELL IN IRAN

LEAH WILLIAMSON
02 July 2004
pressandjournal.co.uk

North-east Royal Marine David Reid was able to send a secret message on his mobile phone from his Iranian prison cell to his base, the Press and Journal can reveal.

He was able to alert his HQ to the trouble that he and his seven comrades were in.

His captors missed the phone when they searched him after he was taken prisoner with five fellow marines and two Royal Navy sailors on the Shatt al Arab waterway dividing Iraq from Iran and held for three days .

But the 24-year-old realised he would be in serious trouble if he was caught with the phone.

Marine Reid disposed of it after removing the sim card.

His father, Graham, revealed more of his son's ordeal after learning that he is due home around August 1.

Speaking from his home in Gordon Road, Kemnay, Mr Reid said the family had received a call from the Ministry of Defence family liaison officer on Wednesday to say David would be due home in around a month's time.

Mr Reid last spoke to his son on Sunday evening and said he was in good spirits.

"We are all looking forward to seeing him. The next four weeks will pass really quickly," said the father.

"But I think it's right for him to be at his base at the moment. He is with people who under-stand what he's experienced."

Mr Reid was heartened to receive a call from a local counsellor, who was once held as a prisoner by the Japanese.

Now in her 70s and a trained counsellor, the woman has offered her support to David when he returns home.

However, Mr Reid said his son, along with his seven comrades and their families, were left furious by the reported comments from rebel MP George Galloway.

It was reported that the Glasgow Kelvin MP had said of their capture: "I just have to laugh.

"We are told we have the best armed forces but they don't even know which country they are in."

David and his comrades may make a statement on their return home.

But in the meantime Mr Reid said the MP was "out of order".

"He showed a complete lack of respect for these men."

Last night it emerged that a new diplomatic row has broken out between Britain and Iran after the Tehran authorities denied forcing the eight UK servicemen into its territorial waters and then arresting them for illegal entry.

Mr Reid said: "I don't know what happened there but I know they are all highly trained and would have been focusing on their job.

"David had only been there two days so he was fresh and would have been concentrating on his job. I don't believe they strayed into waters."

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