A trans-Atlantic romance on the Internet that led a Welsh teenager to run off with an American man more than twice her age ended in tears when the couple gave themselves up to police. The 16-year-old girl was returned to her parents in Abergavenny, while the 34-year-old American was taken into custody to face questioning on suspicion of abduction, police said. The pair walked into a police station in Keswick in the English Lake District last week, nearly two days after the teenager went missing from her home.

The girl's parents told police the couple had first met in cyberspace, exchanging messages on the Internet for about a year before the man apparently went to Britain to meet their daughter. British newspapers said the parents had tried to forbid the long-distance romance after getting a telephone bill for £400 for the Internet line, but they believe their daughter carried on anyway from a computer at the public library. The parents believe the couple had been heading to Gretna Green, just over the border in Scotland, to get married when they decided to give themselves up instead, the spokeswoman for police in Gwent, said.