A retired mechanical engineer from Belfast in Northern Ireland, who was tortured with a blow torch by a gang of robbers before being shot in the neck in eastern South Africa, says he is battling to understand why the men had to murder his animal-loving British wife.

Robert Lynn, 66, whose legs and arms were covered with stab wounds, burns, bruises and stitches, told The Telegraph how and his wife Sue Howarth, 64, were asleep in bed in their house near the trout fishing village of Dullstroom when two gun shots went off at around 2.10 am last Sunday.

Before he could check on his wife, who he met at a dart tournament in Johannesburg in 1977, the men had “burst through” the bedroom window.

Mr Lynn climbed out of bed and one of the men hit him on the back of the head with the butt of a gun and dragged him into the lounge.