A MOTHER who went on holiday to Turkey leaving her three children at home was reunited with them yesterday.

There were emotional scenes as the two toddlers and a baby arrived at Kelly Ann Piggford's home, on the Red Hall estate in Darlington.

The children had been taken into local authority care, and then placed with relatives, after a neighbour reported that the 23-year-old had gone on holiday, leaving them with a 15-year-old babysitter.

Miss Piggford was arrested by police on suspicion of neglect as she landed at Durham Tees Valley Airport on a flight from Turkey, in the early hours of Tuesday. She was later released on bail.

She has insisted that she left her children with their godfather, 20-year-old Dan Lowe.

It has been reported that the 15-year-old gave police a statement in which she said she was left in sole charge of Shauna, four, Stevie, two and Michael, who is 11 months old.

On Tuesday, Miss Piggford was too upset to speak, but yesterday she posed for a photograph with her children in the courtyard outside their home.

It is understood that, early yesterday, the children had been collected from their temporary home where they were staying with their father, Melvyn Jenkinson, in the Haughton area of Darlington, and driven to Miss Piggford's home in Kempton Court.

A friend of Mr Jenkinson, who asked not to be named, said: "He is really upset, he was offered a lot of money from a national newspaper for his story, but he refused and look how he has been treated.

"It is very unfair."

Meanwhile, neighbour Michelle Brooklyn, 29, who was pictured on the front page of The Northern Echo yesterday with Miss Piggford, has asked to make it clear she is not involved in the situation.

She said: "I am a friend and a neighbour, but I am not involved this, and I don't want to be. Kelly is a good mum and our children play together. She is putting a brave face on."