HUMAN rights activist James Mawdsley has ret-urned from a secret visit to Burma, just six months after vowing never to go back.

The 28-year-old democracy campaigner spent the last three weeks visiting political prisoner friends across the border with Thailand.

His mother, Diana, a nurse from Brancepeth near Dur-ham, said he was at little risk of imprisonment this time - only death from marauding war parties.

The former Bristol Uni-versity student was guided by minority Koren dissidents across the border from Thailand.

They travelled through dense jungle to an impoverished village whose school is to receive £1,500 donated by a Thai businessman inspired by the Briton's solo campaign against Burma's military regime.

When Mr Mawdsley was released from a 17-year sentence last October he understood a return could see him jailed for years. That was his second jail term for distributing pro-democracy leaflets.

Before returning to Orms-kirk, Lancashire, on Satur-day, he said his earlier comments that he would never return to the country had been misinterpreted.

He said: "I only said I wouldn't go back to prison. There is no risk if you are careful. Previously I wanted to get attention and get arrested but that wasn't the intention this time. This trip was for me.

"I have said categorically I will not go back to prison and I mean it. I don't want to let my family down and put them through so much pain again."

Mum Diana said there was no political risk for her son this time. She said: "He knows there was no point in challenging the authorities this time, but he did want to see some people who are desperately fighting for their lives in jails and refugee camps. My only slight worry was if he ran into a militia patrol out there. They might kill him without knowing who he is."

Mr Mawdsley, who suffered vicious beatings at the hands of his captors, was held for 415 days in a poky cell in Kentung Prison, 400 miles from Burmese capital Rangoon.

Having been deported three times by the Burmese authorities, Mr Mawdsley had said he would not be going back, but stressed he would still campaign for democracy in the Far East nation.