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Wife of former hostage Joshua Boyle back in U.S. with children: Report

Jul 25, 2018 | 8:15 AM

OTTAWA — The American wife of former overseas hostage Joshua Boyle has reportedly left Canada and returned to the U.S. with the couple’s children, nearly six years after being abducted while backpacking in Afghanistan.

Caitlan Coleman returned home to the U.S. on Monday with the three children, all of whom were born while she and Boyle were held for five years in captivity by a group with links to the Taliban, according to a report by ABC News.

Boyle did not accompany his wife and children and remains in Canada awaiting trial after Ottawa police charged him in December with multiple offences, including assault, sexual assault, unlawful confinement and causing someone to take a noxious substance.

The charges against Boyle relate to two alleged victims, but a court order prohibits the publication of any details that might identify them or any witnesses.

None of the charges has been tested in court. The charges relate to incidents that allegedly occurred after the family was freed from captivity by Pakistani security forces and returned to Canada last October.

Boyle was granted bail last month under strict conditions that include staying with his parents at their home in Smiths Falls, Ont., and wearing a GPS ankle bracelet to track his movements.

Boyle and Coleman have been under the spotlight since they were taken hostage by a Taliban-linked group while on a backpacking trip in Afghanistan in 2012, when Coleman was five months pregnant.

After being freed and returning to Canada, the family stayed for several weeks with Boyle’s parents in Smiths Falls, Ont. They then moved to Ottawa, where they had been living for about a month when Boyle was arrested.

In his younger days, Boyle attended high school in Kitchener, Ont., and earned a degree from the University of Waterloo in 2005.

He was briefly married to Zaynab Khadr, sister of Toronto-born Omar Khadr, who spent years in a U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being captured in Afghanistan.

In 2011, Boyle married Coleman, who was raised in Pennsylvania, during a lengthy trip the pair took to South America.

The following year, they set off for Russia and travelled through Central Asia for several months, winding up in Afghanistan.

The family’s dramatic rescue last October made global headlines, and even led to a meeting on Parliament Hill with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Canadian Press