Baptist minister 'murdered by Filipino wife'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Baptist minister 'murdered by Filipino wife'*
Richard Edwards
Last Updated: 4:58pm GMT 11/12/2007
A British Baptist minister who married a Filipino woman 39 years his
junior has allegedly been murdered by hitmen hired by the bride, it has
emerged.
Pastor David Brash, 62, was apparently battered to death and his body
dumped in a swamp in the Philippines only 21 days after he left the UK
for a new life with his young wife.
A police chief on the island of Mindanao said that his 23-year-old
bride, Analyn Batalyer, confessed to detectives that she paid two hitmen
£350 (30,000 Philippine Pesos) to have him murdered.
"She revealed during police interrogation that out of hatred and anger,
because of her husband’s maltreatment, she had him killed," Senior Supt
Ramon Espiritu said.
Mr Brash, a father-of-two, had previously led the Runcorn Independent
Baptist Church in Cheshire.
In 2004 he divorced his wife of 38 years and met his new bride while
acting as a missionary in Mindanao last year.
In an entry on his website on October 7, Mr Brash told of his happiness
as he and his wife planned to buy a house together.
He said: "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."
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In another entry he wrote: "Analyn has asked that we spend Christmas and
New Year with her family. It will be our first Christmas together and my
first one in the Philippines.
"I will be amused to listen to the strains of I’m Dreaming Of A White
Christmas and Jingle Bells in a country where it never snows".
Mr Brash left Britain on November 1. Detectives believe he was beaten,
set on fire and his body dumped in a swamp on November 22.
Batalyer called police a week later to report him missing. Mr Espiritu,
deputy police chief for operations in Caraga Region of Mindanao, said
that she had confessed after weeks of interrogation.
She told officers she had hired two hitmen - including the couple’s
driver, Reynante Prado - to kill him.
Mr Brash had "maltreated" her and her young son, she said, but police
are also investigating the possibility she was having a relationship
with Prado.
Batalyer is due to be charged on Wednesday, while the two hitmen remain
at large.
The death penalty was abolished in the Philippines last year and
Batalyer faces life in jail.
The pastor’s ex-wife, Veronica Brash, who now lives in Grappenhall,
said: "There is nothing to add to what is already on the internet.
"We have a very difficult situation to deal with."
The couple had two sons, Ian, 36, from Aylesbury, Bucks, and Andrew, 35,
from Droylsden, Greater Manchester, neither of whom wanted to comment.
Pastor Walter Johnston, who has been assisting Mr Brash’s former
parishioners since he left for the Philippines six weeks ago, said: "I
have known David for a number of years but I never knew him personally.
"The last time we met was when he was packing up his gear and saying
goodbye.
"He seemed very happy and this tragic news has come as a terrible shock."
At Mr Brash’s former home, Stoneleigh Court in Grappenhall, Warrington,
a neighbour, who described herself as chair of the residents’ group,
said the pastor moved out 18 months ago.
The woman, who would not give her name, said: "He lived here for a short
time but he took a young man under his wing who also moved into the flat.
"We had to get rid of the young man and Mr Brash left soon after that."
The woman would not say what the troubles were that led to Mr Brash’s
departure from Stoneleigh Court.
She described him as a "man of God", saying: "He was no trouble himself."