FORMER Kintyre paratrooper Billy Irving received a moraleboosting visit in the Indian jail where he was sent for five years’ hard labour in Janu ary. Last Monday, Hugo Swire, minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, visited Billy, who is one of the imprisoned ‘Chennai Six’ lifting hopes that the government is making positive steps to put pressure on the Indians.
The men have been held for nearly three years since the Indian government claimed the pirate-hunting boat, MV Seaman Guard Ohio, had strayed into its territorial waters.
Hugo Swire at work.