THE 13 year old British bride, Sarah Cook, who married an unemployed Turkish waiter she met on holiday, arrived home yesterday with her mother.
Sarah finally gave in to pressure from the courts, the Foreign Office and her parents to return to Britain, leaving behind her 18 year old lover, who was charged with statutory rape and held in custody.
Sarah, from Essex, married Mr Musa Komeagac in an unauthorised Muslim ceremony in Turkey in January after a holiday romance last summer. She has denied newspaper reports that she is already pregnant.
Sarah's parents have said the marriage has their approval and that they were happy with their daughter moving to a remote Turkish town.
Sarah and her mother, Jackie, were met off the plane at Heathrow Airport by police, who took her away by a back exit.
Following the marriage ceremony, Sarah was made a ward of court after Essex social services expressed concern about her welfare. Her husband will appear in court on February 15th.
The debate over the story has provoked a Sunday Times columnist, Lesley White, to write: "Who except the ignorant or the feckless could celebrate the abandonment of their little princess to strangers, an alien culture and a draconian religion? Sarah's situation is not just scary, it is the waking nightmare of every mother of a teenage girl."