Freed Hostage Mom Played Beheading Game With Son

In an effort to make him less afraid, says Caitlan Coleman Boyle
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 20, 2017 1:32 PM CST

The American hostage mom who was freed five years after being captured by the Taliban-related Haqqani network is detailing the abuse she suffered to ABC News in hopes that those responsible will see some measure of justice for the "human rights violations" committed against the family. Caitlan Coleman Boyle, 31, accuses the guards of forcing an abortion by putting an additive in her food in 2014 that caused a miscarriage. She says she and husband Joshua Boyle named the child Martyr Boyle, and that they tried to get news of what happened to higher-ups but says she was raped by two guards in retribution. "And afterwards, the animals wouldn't even give me back my clothes," she says. Coleman Boyle says she and her husband hid the pregnancies of her two subsequent children, and delivered the infants themselves.

The Pennsylvania woman was more than six months pregnant with their eldest son when they were captured in Afghanistan in 2012, and in the interview, she says the boy "certainly knew" that a beheading was possible. So they made up a game using the story about the 1649 execution of Charles I to try to dispel some of the fear. "He had great fun pretending to be Oliver Cromwell chasing Charles I around and trying to behead him. So we made it a game so that he wasn't afraid because there was, you know, there was nothing we could do if it came to that except try to make him less afraid." Joshua Boyle also appears in the interview and says his wife broke her hand while punching a guard in defense of her children. He would not elaborate on why they were in Afghanistan; he previously says he was helping "neglected" villagers. (More hostage stories.)

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