Former Canadian hostage, wife speak out about abuse and rape in first televised interview

By News Staff

A Canadian man and his American wife, who, along with their three children, were held captive by the Taliban for five years, are speaking on camera for the first time.

Joshua and Caitlyn Boyle were taken hostage in October of 2012 as they backpacked in Afghanistan.

The family was rescued by the Pakistani army last month, and flew back to Toronto.

On Good Morning American on Monday, the couple told ABC News’ Brian Ross about the ordeal — including terrible tales of abuse and rape.

Caitlyn Boyle said some of the guards “actively hated children” and that they would find excuses to hit her four-year-old son. She said when she tried to intervene, she was beaten.

“One of the guards threw me down on the ground, hitting me and shouting ‘I will kill you, I will kill you’,” she explained.

She said she was even raped by her captors in front of her son.

The family’s four children were born in captivity.

After the family returned home to Canada, Joshua Boyle told the media that the Taliban-linked Haqqani network had killed their fourth child – a daughter – by a forced abortion.

The three children are now 4, 2 and around 6 months.

The Boyles said they tried to educate their children during their time in captivity and the couple improvised basic toys.

“We would just teach them to use things like bottle caps or bits of cardboard – garbage essentially – but what we could find to play with and tell them ‘these are toys. We can make a game of this,'” she explained.

Caitlyn said they also tried to prepare their children for the possibility that their parents could be beheaded by their captors, by pretending to be British royalty.

“We made it a game so that he wasn’t afraid because there was nothing we could do if it came to that, except try to make him less afraid,” she told GMA.

Joshua claims that during his time in captivity, he repeatedly refused to join sides with the Taliban.

He is demanding that his kidnappers be brought to justice for the “murder” of his infant daughter and the rape of his wife while they were in captivity.

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press

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