The Derek Aikman hostage story has dominated print and electronic media for an entire week which is no mean feat in a news cycle that's constantly fuelled by new scandals and the endless morbid symptoms of societal decay. But indeed, the sensation of the Derek Aikman hostage taking is so completely without precedent that it has truly transfixed public imagination.
But while the question earlier this week was: "where is Derek Aikman," the question we've been hearing since he was found on Wednesday night is: "was his abduction real or just a hoax"? This afternoon, Keith Swift visited Aikman's residence and got the straight story. Our interview began with the question just about everyone is asking, why did Aikman stop for the kidnappers at night on the Boom Road? He told us he thought they needed his help.
Keith Swift,
Take us back to Sunday night on the road. Why did you stop?
Derek Aikman,
"Keith there was an approaching vehicle right on that last stretch, I guess before reaching Fresh Pond, way in the distance. As a matter of fact I just traveled the route again with my daughter a while ago to sort and recap for my own self. There was this vehicle and now I realize it had to have been just about at the junction, the first possible junction to enter Burrell Boom when you're coming from Hattieville. That's where I am thinking now the vehicle must have been.
It blinked its light, well I didn't think it was first at me, it dipped its light. I ignored the dip because I checked and I had my lights on and I usually think when somebody dips you, it's a signal to tell you to turn on your light but my light was on so I didn't dip. And then the person dipped again, a second time, and when they dipped the second time, then I sort of took stock of the road and I didn't see any other vehicle so I dipped back and they immediately dipped again and then we began a dipping communication, as it were, and then the vehicle began to veer, very slowly, over to my side and then began slowing down as they approach and we were just dipping back and forth, dipping back and forth.
I quite frankly thought someone was in trouble, someone needed help. So when we came to a stop, right in front of each other, I was preparing now to get out the vehicle to see what happened and before I was able to do that, that's when two men with masked and guns came out the vehicle and came. One stood in front of the bannet, one came to the passenger side, and one came to where I was sitting and put the gun to the glass and said to me, 'open the door.'
So I opened the door and he very calmly, very sternly, in a very commanding way said, turn off the lights and stop the vehicle,' because the vehicle was still at that time. I had my foot on the brakes and I had not even put it into park or anything. He told me to turn off the lights, turn off the vehicle, take out the key, put on your hazard lights. So I began to do that. While doing that, the other person was opening the door, the passenger door and had set a paper on the seat and slammed the door. I just felt someone slapping on a blindfold."
Keith Swift,
These men had on masks?
Derek Aikman,
"They had masks that were right down to their, I couldn't see their neck with holes for the eyes. I don't know for the mouth or nose but I know their eyes. All of that happened, I don't even know if took fifteen or twenty minutes. I know it was fast."
Keith Swift,
With the Burrell Boom Road being dark at night and deserted, wasn't stopping your first mistake?
Derek Aikman,
"Well obviously in retrospect Keith that was a mistake but I pickup people all the time on the road."
Aikman says he was transported to an undisclosed location where he was held for 48 hours. He was given three phone calls, one was to Krem Radio on Monday afternoon and the other two were to his wife and daughter on Sunday night. He was fed noodle soup and provided with water. His captors told him he would be killed if the BTL Vesting Bill was signed into law. When it was signed on Tuesday, Aikman was told the G.G. had in effect signed his death warrant.
Derek Aikman,
"The evening the phone began to ring and after the first call the English man came and said that the Governor General had just signed my death warrant because he signed the bill into law and they had to execute me. Keith I will never forgot those words for as long as I live. But anyway the phone kept ringing and forth and I don't know if it was designed to destroy to my mind, play with my mind, but every time it would ring, he would come back with a change, 'we've decided not to kill you or execute you,' and then the phone would ring and he would come and said they changed their mind.
That happened about four or five times, a like a yo-yo back and forth and going high-going low and then finally when the phone rang, he took a longer time this time, he came back and said something to the effect that, 'we've decided,' or 'we finally decided,' or something like that, 'we won't kill you but you have got to promise that in your encounter with the police, you will let them know that the Prime Minister and Governor General will be next.' I said my brother I will do anything you say.
It was at that point they took what I now know is duct tape and right over the same blindfold that was on me, they taped the duct tape over the blindfold and then around my mouth and then they asked me to stand up and put my hands to my side and then they began just wrapping the duct tape from about the wrist right up to my shoulders."
Aikman was transported to an area on the Western Highway where he was left on the roadside, blindfolded, gagged, and bound with duct tape. And while his story of 48 hours in captivity has a happy ending, for some the ending is too neat. There are skeptics, and this evening Aikman addressed them.
Keith Swift,
People don't believe you.
Derek Aikman,
"Keith let me tell you something, two things I will say. It is interesting, and I didn't know this until I was in the hospital Wednesday, the television was on and the news came on. I had no knowledge that within 24 hours of my abduction, another individual, the news reported, was kidnapped and I thought to myself, my gosh, within twenty four hours there was a second kidnapping.
Nobody that I have spoken to, and I have spoken to a lot of people, but nobody that I've spoken to whose spoken to people out there have reported that anybody has any speculation on that second person's kidnapping. But there is speculation on mine and Keith I think, I understand why those who are spinning it that way are spinning it that way.
I don't think there's anything I would ever say that will probably change their minds. I can't make anybody believe anything. I am not going to try and I just pray that things don't manifest themselves down the road for people to then say, 'bwoy maybe what the man was saying is true.' I pray for anybody else who can be vulnerable, that that doesn't happen. I would hate that it would take for another incident, maybe not directly similar to mine, but a..."
Keith Swift,
But Mr. Aikman can we take this people seriously? They said they will kill the Governor General and Prime Minister but they didn't kill you.
Derek Aikman,
"I can't tell you how to take them, I know I am taking them seriously."
Keith Swift,
Are you going to back down, will you retreat?
Derek Aikman,
"Anybody who knows me by now, I think the mettle, and I don't use that as any attempt to boast, that term, I guess my makeup has always been that I think the more you try to back me off, the more determine I become."
Police continue to investigate and when that's finished an official release says the file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice and directions.
