Father’s relief as son finally gets justice in India

DAD OVERJOYED AS CHENNAI SIX MEMBER SET TO COME HOME

Nick Dunn FREED Nick Dunn’s dad is eagerly awaiting his son’s return to British soil.

Jim Dunn has spoken of his relief after hearing his boy will soon be coming home after enduring years of hell locked-up in an Indian jail.

But the pensioner told the Sunday Sun he will not be celebrating until Nick’s plane has touched down at Newcastle Airport and he know’s his son is finally safe.

Jim has spoken for the first time since Nick’s convictions for weapons offences were overturned by a judge.

And the 71-year-old has revealed how his superfit son survived inside.

Jim said: “It has just been a massive, massive relief for everybody but it’s not over until Nick lands at Newcastle Airport. We will not relax until that happens. But we have just got to forget all this ever happened now.

“Nick has got to move on with his life, too much time has been wasted.”

Nick, from Ashington, spent eight years in the army after joining up at the age of 16.

He served in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, before leaving the forces and taking on private security work.

And when the now 31-year-old was offered work on an anti-piracy ship by an American company four years ago, his family thought little of it.

“He got this phone call off an agent in Newcastle who he was in the army with,” Jim explained. “He said: ‘I have got you a contract. Can you start on Monday?’ Then he went away and that was the last we seen him.

“We were happy because we thought it was an American company and it must be safe. It’s ironic that he’s been to all they warzones and come back unscathed then this happens.”

Nick was working on the MV Seaman Guard Ohio along with 34 other men in 2013 when the Indian coastguard boarded the vessel and arrested them for taking weapons into India’s territorial waters.

At first Nick assured his family it was probably a misunderstanding.

“When I heard he had been arrested, everybody thought it was just a mistake,” Jim said.

“They had gone through things like this before but then the coastguard would just check their paperwork and they would be on their way.

“When they brought them into port the place was teaming with police and reporters and they realised this was pre-planned. But even then they were saying: ‘ Don’t worry it will be sorted’.”

The men were then put on a bus and told they were being taken to hospital, but they were instead transported to prison.

Nick and his colleagues were locked-up for around 18 months.

The charges were initially quashed when the men argued the weapons were lawfully held for anti-piracy pur- poses and their paperwork, issued by the UK Government, was in order. The men were released on bail but were unable to leave India.

Then in January last year a lower court reinstated the prosecution and Nick, along with five other men from the UK, were convicted and sentenced to five years in jail.

Nick was locked up in a tiny cell at Puzhal Central Prison in the Chennai district of India.

As his family worked tirelessly to get him released, with sister Lisa lobbying politicians, gym-lover Nick kept