BBC presenter quizzed over botanists

THE BBC TV presenter who filmed Rod and Rachel Saunders in the Drakensberg was detained by UK counter-terrorism police hours after the Cape Town-based British botanists were kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) suspects.

Award-winning BBC Gardeners’ World host Nick Bailey was whisked from his UK home soon after returning from South Africa and later interrogated at a London police station for five hours. Bailey was then coached by hostage negotiators how to handle a possible IS ransom demand for the Saunders couple before being released.

These dramatic developments that unfolded just hours after Rod, 74, and Rachel, 63, were abducted from a remote KZN forest, were revealed in an e-mail Bailey sent to a South African friend and colleague, Douglas McMurtry, who appeared as a guest in the Mpumulanga leg of his Gardeners’ World shoot.

“Nick’s e-mail that Rod and Rachel had been kidnapped made my hair stand on end,” said McMurtry, a well-known orchid expert from Nelspruit, whose friendship with the couple goes back to the Sixties when he studied horticulture with Rod. “I couldn’t understand how Isis could be that clever. How did they link Nick Bailey with Rod and Rachel? It’s a mystery to me.”

McMurtry is still in the dark why Bailey was questioned for so long. “I can’t believe Nick Bailey is Isis. I worked with him in South Africa.” He can’t understand why Bailey’s e-mail contained a false reassurance. “At the end he said, ‘don’t worry, Rod and Rachel have been rescued and are safe’. That’s very odd.”

Sources close to the South African investigation could not shed any light on the reason behind Bailey’s detention. But one possible explanation offered is that it was sparked by his selfie with the couple, which he tweeted at 7.30pm on February 8.

“The amazing Rod and Rachel Saunders of Silverhill Seeds,” read the caption to the last photo of the missing couple. “These guys know their South African native plants… and vitally where to find them. They sell an incredible range of seeds online.”

“This could have tipped off the kidnappers that they were holding hostages valued in the UK,” said a source.