Relatives of a group of British hostages held in Iraq for more than 18 months have told of their anguish as they endure their second Christmas without their loved ones.

Peter Moore, a 32-year-old computer expert, and his four bodyguards were kidnapped at the Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May last year.

Up to 40 men posing as policemen abducted the group and demanded the release of prisoners in American detention. The kidnapped men, one of whom was rumoured to have committed suicide, have not been fully identified for security reasons.

Roseleen, the wife of Alan, a bodyguard, said: “My son is 3, so he has not seen his dad since just before his second birthday. He has told people his daddy is coming home for Christmas, so that is quite sad.”

Referring to her constant hope that he will be released, she told the BBC: “It is very difficult but I just need to think of Alan coming home. I visualise him coming off the plane to meet me quite often.

“I cannot wait for him to come home and see us and I just get through every day hoping that maybe at some point I will get the phone call from him to say he’s on his way.”

She told Channel 4 that she had been able to discuss the situation with her daughter in simple terms but struggled with her young son because he did not understand why his father could not come home.

Alan’s sister-in-law, Caroline, said that the families were constantly trying to make sure that their plight was “top of the political agenda”.

She said: “Clearly there is always more that can be done. But really this message is about the humanitarian impact on the families and to try to get a message to the men themselves at Christmas time, a really special time of year, not just in the Christian calendar but also in the Muslim calendar.”

Jan, a friend of another of the hostages, Jason, said that the men “certainly haven’t been forgotten”.

After their abduction, Mr Moore, from Lincoln, appeared in a video appealing for help to Gordon Brown to free some Iraqi prisoners. The main aim of the hostage-takers, the Shia Islamic resistance, is the release of Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for al-Mahdi Army.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office refused to comment.

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