‘Pirate hunter’ will miss son’s first ever Christmas

He and more than 30 others were arrested after allegedly straying into Indian waters with weapons and ammunition.

After being told the case against them was quashed, Indian prosecutors applied for a retrial, which is now under way.

Billy, a former British Army soldier with the 1st Parachute Regiment, had been operating as a private security contractor for major shipping firms, a hired gun who would protect ships from pirates in dangerous international waters.

Modern piracy is rife in open waters off the Eastern coast of Africa and some Middle Eastern countries, with a real threat to international shipping also coming from terrorist groups such as ISIS.

However, Indian authorities swooped on the US firm’s ship, MV Seaman Gaurd Ohio on October 12, 2013, claiming it had strayed into Indian waters and that the men in board did not have the correct documentation for their guns and ammunition.

However, two years on from his arrest Billy has yet to have his passport and papers returned to him, and his loving fiance fears he will not be home in time to see his son’s first Christmas.

Yvonne MacHugh, 27, said: “Billy should be able to come home now, they have no reason to be holding on to his documentation or his passport anymore.

“The case has been up to the highest court in the land and back to the bottom again and the charges have been dropped twice.

“It is getting beyond a joke now and we feel like the British Government is not doing enough to support him or get him home.

“It is Remembrance Sunday this week, where we give thanks to our veterans for their service — Billy is a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq but he is receiving no help at all.” Billy, originally from Argyll, is struggling to support himself after being released from the infamous Puzhal Prison in Chennai.

While technically still employed by the private security firm AdvanFort, he is not being paid and is entirely reliant on money being sent from family and friends in Scotland.

Five other British nationals were on the ship, including Nick Dunn, of Ashington, Northumberland, Ray Tindallfrom Chester, Paul Towers from Pocklington, North Yorkshire, John Armstrong from Wigton, Cumbria and Nicholas Simpson, from Catterick, North Yorkshire.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it could provide advice but not financial assistance to the men, During their time awaiting trial, and before bail was granted, Billy and the other men were locked up in Puzhal Prison.

It is claimed that drugs and arms trading are rife within the jail, and that is common place to see guards beating inmates as the British men were forced to mix with rapists and murderers.

AdvanFort said their vessel Seaman Guard Ohio was allowed into port to shelter from a storm and refuel.

In prison his weight plummeted due to poor nutrition and contracting the stomach bugs which run rife.

He required hospital treatment several times and it was claimed that his filthy conditions included rats and snakes in his cell but kept his spirits up by playing a set of pipes Yvonne had given him to help pass the time.

At home, Yvonne was campaigning for his release.

She lodged a petition of nearly 150,000 signatures at Downing Street begging the Government for help freeing the men.

But since being released, Billy has been able to receive visits from Yvonne, who has spent weeks at a time with him in India.

But despite this he has only seen his eight month old son, William, once.

Yvonne said: “It was a great moment when he met William, but that was almost four months ago.

“I came home because it looked likely that he would not be long behind me, the charges had been dropped and Billy was a free man, but then they appealed for a re-trial.

“So now we don’t know when he will be getting home and it feels like no one back home, apart from his friends and family, are trying to fight his corner.” But the family are feeling optimistic this time around, with the trial in front of India’s Magistrates Court going “extremely well” for the men, according to their lawyers.

Yvonne said: “The evidence throughout has been really very poor, that’s why it keeps getting quashed.

“The supreme court has said the trial must be completed in six months, but as we know, noting goes as they say it will over there.

“There has been no evidence given throughout this whole case so they can’t say the weapons were illegal.

“But now that it is going to trial it means that we might be about to see some sort of conclusion to this whole thing.” After Billy released from prison earlier this year, Yvonne travelled to see him and young William was conceived and Billy proposed.

She returned home, and gave birth without Billy present.

However four months later she returned with the tot in tow, and she is now looking forwards, to planning their wedding.

But all her optimism will be for nothing if Billy does not get his passport and travel documentation back from the Indian government.

And she has begged the British government to step up to the plate and help Billy out.

She said: “More needs to be done because right now we feel like he and the other men have been completely forgotten about.

“The Foreign Office has been incredibly unhelpful, and I am really hoping that getting our local MPs more involved will lead to some movement.” Yvonne herself originally grew up in Neilston, but moved to Oban with Billy.

But Billy’s lack of income during his ordeal resulted in the couple losing their home, and Yvonne moved back to Neilston in time to have little William.

Now the area’s MP, Kirsten Oswald, is wading in on the argument.

And as the SNP’s spokeswoman on armed forces and defence, Yvonne is hoping Oswald will have the clout to create change.

Oswald said: “I have been taking a close interest in Billy’s case, and I have been doing everything I can to try and make sure that every assistance is being given to Billy and his shipmates, to facilitate their speedy return home at the end of this second trial.

“I know that being held in India has been incredibly hard for Billy, Yvonne and the rest of their family, and I very much hope that he will be home in Neilston soon, and able to get on with his life.”