04/12/2007

Sudan Teacher Returns To The UK

A British teacher who was jailed in Sudan after allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad has returned to the UK.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool spent more than a week in jail for insulting Islam before being released. She received a pardon from the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir on Monday.

She arrived at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday morning, with British Muslim peers Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, where her son John and daughter Jessica greeted her.

Speaking to the press at Heathrow, Mrs Gibbons described the incident as a "huge shock". She said: "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."

When asked if she was going to continue working as a teacher, Mrs Gibbons said: "I'm looking for a job - I am jobless."

(KMcA)


Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

03 December 2007
Sudanese Pardon Teacher
Jailed teacher Gillian Gibbons is to be released from prison in Sudan today after she was locked up for allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Mrs Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was jailed for 15 days by a court in Sudan. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her after a meeting with two British Muslim peers.
29 November 2007
Jail Term For Sudan Teddy Bear Teacher
A British teacher has been jailed in the Sudan for insulting religion after naming her classes' teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, has now been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will then be deported. She escaped conviction for inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs, and will now appeal.
30 November 2007
Sudan Protestors Call For Teacher's Death
Sudanese protestors took to the streets in their thousands on Friday to protest about the trial of British school teacher Gillian Gibbons, jailed over naming a teddy bear in her class 'Mohammed'.
30 November 2007
Release Of Teddy Bear Insult Teacher Sought
The UK Foreign Office is continuing efforts to attempt to secure the release of a British teacher who has been jailed for 15 days in Sudan for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, received the sentence and will be deported once it has been completed.
18 November 2014
Duck Farm Cull Underway
Government veterinary experts are to begin a cull of some 6,000 ducks at a breeding farm where an outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed. An exclusion zone of 6 miles is in place around the East Yorkshire farm in the village of Nafferton.