Missing internet teenager returns

The pair met through a chatroom on the internet

A teenager from south Wales who disappeared with a man who she had met on the internet over two months ago has finally returned home.

Kelly Reid, 16, vanished after meeting supermarket worker Robert Percy, 20, in a website chat-room just weeks before her first GCSE.

Kelly vanished for over two months

The schoolgirl has admitted that she left her home in Merthyr Tydfil on 26 April to escape the pressures of her exams.

Kelly said: "I just needed to get away from it all and Robert agreed to come with me so that I wouldn't be on my own.

"But in the end I missed my mum so much I had to come home."

The disappearance of the teenager sparked an international search.

Interpol became involved after concerns were raised that the pair may have travelled to France.

We have disconnected our computer from the internet - we went through hell because of that

Deborah Reid, Kelly's mum

But the schoolgirl revealed they had stayed in Britain and have spent the last two months staying in hotels and campsites in towns throughout south east England.

Kelly finally walked in to a police station in Newbury, Berkshire, over the weekend and was reunited with parents on Sunday.

Robert has stayed in Newbury and Kelly has insisted that she will continue seeing him.

Relief

She said: "Robert is still my boyfriend and I am going to keep visiting him - but I won't be leaving home again for the moment."

Kelly's parents have spoken of their relief that their daughter has returned home.

Her mother Deborah Reid said: "I had been frightened to pick up the phone in case it was bad news about Kelly but that call saying she wanted to come home was the happiest of my life.

"I'm over the moon but now we just want to get our lives back to normal.

"But we have disconnected our computer from the internet - we went through hell because of that."