Marine captured 3 occasions in 3 years says what it is actually prefer to be held hostage

A former Royal Marine has revealed what it is like to be taken hostage – having been kidnapped three years on the trot.

Simon Maryan, 52, enrolled in the Royal Marines at 16 years old and spent some 16 years in the service. Simon, who is originally from Plymouth, went on to work privately for multinational companies and intelligence services around the world.

He has been kidnapped twice in Nigeria, and once in Sweden, and counts himself lucky. Simon said: “Kidnapping is going on all day every day. It is huge business.

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“It was an unfortunate side to the job but I am extremely lucky in that the hostage periods were short.”

Simon now lives near Aberdeen, Scotland, with his wife and two children.

He was kidnapped for the first time in 2006 while working for a private intelligence service in Bayelsa, Nigeria.

Simon was taken hostage by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) – a military group campaigning against government corruption and environmental destruction, he says.

The militia was kidnapping westerners for the money and to make a political statement.

Simon said: “It was the most surreal situation.

“Fifteen to twenty Nigerian gentlemen boarded our boat in the middle of the night with RPGs and AK-47s.

“When you are armed it is a very persuasive argument.”

He added: “There was gunfire and shouting.

“It doesn’t matter how much training you have had, nothing can really prepare you for being taken hostage.”

Simon and one other person were hooded, put in a speedboat and taken a few hours up the river.

He said: “When we arrived at the town, they said: ‘We are not going to hurt you’.”

Instead, the hostage takers provided mattresses, mosquito nets, three meals a day and beer – for it was cheaper and safer than water.

Simon said: “I didn’t trust them for the first few days.

“They let us wander around, as we had no idea where we were anyway, and I ended up playing football with the kids.”

Simon also cleaned and serviced the gang’s weapons until the speedboats took them back down the river nine days later.

He said: “We were handed over for bags of cash – I have no idea who paid.”

In 2007, Simon was kidnapped again in Nigeria – and had a far less comfortable time.

Simon and three others were grabbed from their camp by a violent criminal gang and led into the swamps.

He said: “I thought for f*** sake, not again.

“But it was a totally different vibe, there was animosity.”

The four hostages were locked in a hut with nothing but a bucket, a small bottle of water each and a meal once a day.

After three weeks of being left alone, the criminal gang became more intoxicated and began to take their frustrations out on the hostages.

Simon said: “They would beat us up one by one and stage mock executions – sticking the barrel in your mouth and in your chest.

“The most disconcerting part was being beaten by the flat side of a machete while they were drunk.”

As a form of punishment, the gang would place a hostage head down in a shoulder width six-foot hole deep hole for hours on end – and then use it as their toilet.

Simon said: “It would be running down your face.

“It was disgusting. They were sick.”

After 35 days, the hostages were rounded up and returned by boat in exchange for cash.

Simon said: “Again, I have no idea who paid but ransoms are paid all the time – they’re just not talked about.”

A year later, in 2008, Simon was employed to keep a person of interest safe out on the islands to the east of Stockholm, Sweden.

One evening, Simon came across a suspicious car while searching the perimeter of a house.

He was phoning in the find to his boss when a van pulled up and two armed men got out.

Simon said: “They had silenced MP5s and beat the s*** out of me.

“They put me in the back of the van. My instinct was this would be a one-way trip as they didn’t hood me or tie me up. I knew I had to at least try and make a break for it.”

Simon sat with one hostage taker opposite and one to the right as the van drove away from Stockholm.

He said: “I grabbed the person to my right’s weapon, spat in the person opposite’s face and lunged for the door handle.

“I spilled out of the car with the person to my right and landed on top of him.

“His head hit the ground and popped in the snow.”

Simon had dislocated his shoulder, broken a few ribs and fractured his eye socket but made a dart for the woods where he lay down and covered himself in snow.

Simon said: “I listened as the other men came back to search for me.”

After five or so minutes, which felt like an eternity to Simon, the attackers left.

Simon made it back to his car four hours later and drove back to Stockholm.

He was informed that his asset had made it to safety in time and that the attackers were Russians.

The kidnapping was the last straw for Simon, who decided to change industry.

He became a health and safety advisor working on oil rigs, earned his PHD in psychology in 2013 and also works as a motivational speaker.

He said: “I use my experiences in approaching therapy to help others.”

Simon teaches emotional and psychological resilience techniques that enable a person to control their emotional and psychological state.

This helps the individual remain or regain a high performance state which increases the chances of a positive outcome in stressful circumstances.

Simon also runs team coaching workshops, personal coaching and corporate leadership sessions.