RUSSIAN billionaire Roman Abramovich claims he paid a ransom to Chechan rebels to free two former Forest aid workers.

The Chelsea football club boss made the bombshell claims about Camilla Carr and Lydney man Jon James at a high profile court case.

The couple were kidnapped in July 1997, three months after they arrived in Chechnya to set up a rehabilitation centre for traumatised war-children.

They spent 14 months in captivity and later wrote a book about their ordeal in which Camilla, from Ross-on-Wye, told how she was repeatedly raped by one of their captors.

But despite claims by the UK and Russian authorities that no ransom had been involved in their eventual release, Abromovich told a court he put up cash to secure their freedom.

The couple were flown home to Britain on a private jet belonging to Boris Berezovsky, one of Mr Abramovich's former business partners.