Speaking publicly for the first time since his release, Mr Moore said even as he was told he was going to be released he suspected he was about to be killed.

The computer expert - whose mother lives in Thornton - was released on December 30, 946 days after he was kidnapped in Iraq.

The 36-year-old was seized along with his four British bodyguards by militants posing as police at the Iraqi finance ministry in May 2007.

The bodies of three of Mr Moore's bodyguards - Alec MacLachlan, 30, from Llanelli, South Wales, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, 39, originally from Glasgow - were passed to UK authorities last year.

A fourth bodyguard, Alan McMenemy, 34, from Glasgow, is also believed to have been killed.

Mr Moore has spoken for the first time about the conditions.

He said: "In 2007 it was pretty harsh. We were in chains, shackled, blindfolded, handcuffed, periodically beaten, water poured over us."

He said there were "many, many times" he thought he was not going to make it out alive, adding: "One time the guards came in, handcuffed me behind my back, blindfolded me, walked me out, put a pistol to my head and pulled the trigger, and fired another one off behind my back.

"I just thought I was dead. And then I realised I could still hear laughing, I was still handcuffed and that wasn't the case."

FOR THE FULL STORY SEE WEDNESDAY'S GAZETTE.