FREED charity worker Ian Stillman returned to Britain yesterday, vowing to clear his name.

Mr Stillman, 53, who is deaf, has an artificial leg and suffers from diabetes, was greeted by cheers from his tearful family as he arrived at Heathrow airport, after serving two years and two months of a ten-year jail sentence in India for possession of 20kg of cannabis.

Mr Stillman, whose parents, Roy and Monica, live in Tadcaster Road, York, was accused of being a drugs baron, but was freed early on medical grounds because of the primitive prison conditions in Simla, north of Delhi.

Holding his arms out wide Mr Stillman, originally from Reading, was wheeled through arrivals shortly before 8am to a chorus of clapping and cheering from his closest relatives.

His ten-year sentence was labelled by campaign group Fair Trials Abroad as the "worst miscarriage of justice" it had ever dealt with.

Mr Stillman, wearing a blue shirt and brown trousers, said of his release: "It's brilliant to be free again."

Then, using sign language interpreted by his son, he read out a prepared statement thanking people for all their support and hard work over the past two years.

''I was in jail far, far longer than I thought I would have been," he said. "I thought I would be freed after six months, but it has taken just over two years."