BRITAIN:A Filipina was last night charged with murdering her British pastor husband after his charred body was recovered from a swamp on the island of Mindanao.
Philippine newspapers reported that Annalyn Bataller Brash (22) had confessed during police interrogation to hiring two hitmen to kill David Brash (62), a preacher and former electronics engineer from Warrington, Cheshire. The couple married last year.
Brash's partially decomposed body was found near his adopted home in the state of Agusan del Sur last Saturday, less than six weeks after he flew out to the Pacific islands with his new wife to start evangelical missionary work. His hands and feet had been chained.
Until October, Brash, a grandfather, had lived in a flat above the a shop in Warrington, northern England, preaching in nearby Runcorn.
A shop assistant there recalled him as "a very nice guy, very friendly and a mature man. He said he was bringing his bride home from the Philippines . . . She was only young - she looked like a tot and I thought she was about 18 or 19. He said he was marrying a Filipina girl and age didn't come into it."
"He was looking forward to his new life in the Philippines, he said it was beautiful," the assistant added. "When the container arrived [ for packing], they were taking everything. He said: 'They'll think I'm a millionaire over there'."
Despite helping to run the Runcorn Independent Baptist Church, Brash was not universally popular with the town's Christian community. He courted controversy two years ago by claiming the Asian tsunami was the "sin of mankind".
Walter Johnston, who took over the organisation of the church, said: "I knew of David rather than I knew him. It was only when he informed the two or three people who attend the church he intended to leave that myself and others were brought in. There are only two very elderly people who worship at the church."
Stuart Hart, a schoolteacher and another preacher at the church, had met Annalyn.
"I asked her how she was settling in and coping with the British weather. She was a very pleasant young girl."
Mr Hart said Brash had first visited the Philippines in 2000 after being invited to preach.
"He would return to the country each year for longer periods and, when back in the UK, would organise for computers to be sent out to schools."
Brash ran a website blog - last updated on October 22nd - which he used to post religious lectures and a diary in which he bared his soul. Shortly before leaving, he had written: "I have finished my ministry in the UK. Annalyn is making preparations for our reunion . . . I want her to be happy about where we live. Me? I would be happy to live anywhere with her, so long as we are serving the Lord."