‘We met in a car boot’: Waite and Mccarthy back on Lebanese soil

THEY first met in the boot of a car almost 30 years ago. Now Terry Waite and John Mccarthy have been reunited on Lebanese soil, sharing a joke about the country’s improved hospitality.

On Thursday night, as guests of Lebanon’s ambassador to London, the two men warmly embraced. Waite, who turns 80 later this month, was receiving an award for a lifetime devoted to charitable work. Mccarthy, now aged 62, was there to support him.

Mccarthy, a television journalist, had been kidnapped by jihadi terrorists in April 1986 and held in captivity until his release in August 1991. Waite, the Church of England’s special envoy, had gone to Beirut in January 1987 to negotiate Mccarthy’s release. He found himself taken hostage too and largely held in solitary confinement.

Three decades on, the men were able to joke as they entered the Lebanese embassy in Kensington, London. Mccarthy turned to Waite and remarked: “Well here we are again once more experiencing Lebanese hospitality.”

It is thought to be at least a decade since they were last photographed together in public. “I have been thinking about him a lot,” said Mccarthy. “We met in the boot of a car. It was pretty bloody odd. And then we were together for the final year in captivity.

“I first met him after he had been in solitary for four years. I had spent my time in captivity with other hostages but he had been on his own. But when we met he just said: ‘Hello. Are you all right?’ I always wondered how he managed to stay so normal.”

Waite recalled their first meeting. “I was bound up in masking tape and they threw me into the boot of a car. When I got in, I realised there was another body in the boot. I managed to get the tape off and said to the other person: ‘There isn’t much room in here,’ and John Mccarthy replied: ‘There was plenty of space until you got in.’”