A CHARITY worker convicted of smuggling children out of Romania returned home today at the end of a two-year ordeal and declared: "My nightmare is finally over."

Great Harwood businessman John Boast was looking forward to an emotional reunion with his three daughters in Great Harwood after he was finally allowed to return to Britain.

And the 47-year-old told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph: "It's great to be back."

Mr Boast, who was given a 20-month suspended sentence after admitting child smuggling charges, told how he was re-arrested the day before he left Romania.

He said: "I went to the local police station for advice on how to have my passport stamped. They just re-arrested me, took my fingerprints and locked me up. They later released me and told me to return the next day. But my solicitor told me what they were doing was illegal and he sorted things out. I got my passport stamped and I was off.

"My feelings are of sheer relief. It has been two years and for the first time I feel it is all over. Now I just want to be with my family for a while. "I feel I have won my battle. I have not been expelled and I am free to go back, which must be unprecedented for somebody who has been found guilty of such an offence."

Mr Boast, who praised the Lancashire Evening Telegraph for continually highlighting his plight, was today reunited with his daughters Angela, 26, Joanne, 21 and Samantha, 16, who all live in Great Harwood.

He left Romania on Wednesday and arrived back in the UK yesterday in his E-registered Montego, which he had driven from Oradea, in northern Romania.

He spent last night in Southend-on-Sea after the car broke down.

Mr Boast, who has always insisted he took the children to save their lives, said he was planning to return to Romania to continue his humanitarian work.

"I have no regrets about what I did.

"In Romania, children are treated like pieces of cheese that are going out of date.

"I could not leave them to rot."

He said he was hoping to adopt a second child with his Romanian girlfriend, Crina.

They already have an adopted daughter Mariana.

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