Freed teacher is 'sorry to leave Sudan'

Gillian Gibbons, 54 - who was jailed in Khartoum for 15 days and faced calls for her execution - said she was in "total shock" as she faced the media after landing at Heathrow Airport.

"I never imagined this would happen. I am just an ordinary, middle-aged primary school teacher," she said.

Holding her son John's hand, she went on: "I went out there to have a bit of an adventure, and got more of an adventure than I bargained for.

"I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends and to have a good rest. It has been an ordeal but I was well treated in prison and everyone was very kind to me.

"I am very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time. It is a beautiful place and I had a chance to see some of the countryside.

"The Sudanese people I found to be extremely kind and generous and, until this happened, I only had a good experience.

"I wouldn't like to put anyone off going to Sudan."

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, spoke to Mrs Gibbons on her arrival in Britain, after she had spent more than a week in custody for allowing her seven-year-old pupils to name the teddy bear Muhammad, after one of the class.

She was sentenced to 15 days in jail but was released early after a rescue mission by British peers Lord Ahmed of Rotherham and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, granted her a pardon on Monday.

There were emotional scenes as she was reunited with John, 25, and her daughter, Jessica, 27, who had travelled from Liverpool to welcome her, and Mrs Gibbons thanked everyone who had supported her and helped secure her freedom.

Asked about the teddy bear row, she said: "I don't really know enough about it. It is a very difficult and delicate area. I was very upset to think I might have caused any offence."

Her arrest and imprisonment provoked worldwide condemnation, including from Muslim groups in the UK.

But she was unaware of the scale of furore surrounding her case. She said: "The second day in prison, somebody told me they had seen me in a paper in Sudan and then I had a meeting with the British consul, who told me it was in the papers over here too.

"I was isolated in custody and didn't really hear what was going on, and they didn't allow me many visitors to begin with.

"It has all come as a huge shock to me."

PRAISED BY THEIR PEERS

THE peers who helped negotiate the release of Gillian Gibbons were praised in the Lords yesterday.

The teacher was freed early after a diplomatic mission by Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi, both British Muslims.

At Lords question time, attended by both of them, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the Tory former lord chancellor, said: "I am sure we would all like to congratulate our colleagues in the success they had in bringing the teacher back from Sudan."

Lord Triesman, a government minister, replied: "I can hardly endorse that thought more."