THE brother of a pilot held in an African jail for more than three months after stumbling across massacre victims believes he could be freed within days.

David Simpson, 24, of Gillamoor, has been held in the Central African Republic since March, facing charges of murder but his brother is now hopeful he may be released this week. Mr Simpson, who was working as a pilot for a luxury hunting company in the country, found 13 mutilated bodies which had been tied together, and disfigured with boiling water, sticks and stones and then hacked with machetes. He reported the murders to the police, only to find himself and his Swedish boss Erik Mararv, 27, being made official suspects in the case.

Since his arrest, Mr Simpson’s weight has plummeted and he is on medication after several bouts of malaria.

But his brother Paul, 22, said Mr Simpson’s spirits are up. He told The Press a third investigation into the case had finished and if the results, due to be revealed within days, are inconclusive then the CAR government will dismiss the charges against Mr Simpson and allow him to return home.

Paul said: “We are all hoping for good news very soon. This week – hopefully within days – the results of the investigation will come back and we believe David will be released.”

Paul said the Foreign Office, who are providing consular assistance, could have done more to help his brother, and said: “This recent development is all down to the hard work of David’s boss’s family and David and Eric themselves.”

Paul said another attack on CAR residents, similar to that Mr Simpson stumbled across, had been uncovered while his brother was in jail, strengthening the case for his innocence.

David Simpson, a former pupil of Ryedale School and Lady Lumley’s in Pickering, is the son of North Yorkshire pheasant farmers Peter and Vicky. He was helping to clear a road through the dense African bush in his work with big game hunting company Cawa Safari when he came across the bodies in a circle.

Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army are widely believed to be behind the murders, near a remote goldmine.

The Simpsons believe his arrest was an attempt to squeeze money out of him, in the belief that as a westerner he would be wealthy. Mr Simpson’s family have campaigned for his release and won the support of local MPs. Prime Minister David Cameron later discussed the matter with Gabon’s president Ali Bongo Ondimba, one of the CAR’s closest allies.

Paul Simpson told The Press that his family had been “overwhelmed” by the support.