After arriving in Canada Friday, the Canadian man called on Afghanistan’s government to find the members of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network who he said raped his wife, murdered his infant daughter and held his family hostage for five years.
Rescued hostage Joshua Boyle lashed out at his kidnappers, calling for the Afghan government to track down those members of the Haqqani network who raped his wife, Caitlan Coleman, and ordered “the murder of my infant daughter.”
He made the statement to journalists gathered at Pearson International Airport just hours after landing in Toronto. His hands shook as he read the script he had carefully written in a small notebook.
While Boyle did not take questions, his comments confirmed what the couple had darkly hinted at in the letters home and “proof-of-life” videos his captors released during their five years in captivity.
Coleman said in one video that her children had seen her “defiled.” Boyle suggested cryptically in a letter that Coleman had a forced abortion.
While he spoke to the press, the rest of his family was loading into an RCMP van — with baby seats bought by Boyle’s mother already installed — and preparing to drive to their Smiths Falls, Ont., home.
Joshua’s parents, Linda and Patrick Boyle, along with Boyle’s three sisters, who had brought their nephews cellophane balloons with Canadian flags, had a chance to meet the young couple and the children privately in a small room inside the airport shortly after they landed.
Boyle told journalists that one of his children had required medical attention during this time.