Turkish boyfriend of girl, 14, is charged with underage sex
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Your support makes all the difference.A girl aged 14 who fled Britain on a false passport to marry a Turkish barman has been found while her boy-friend has been charged with having sex with a minor.
Interpol was called in to the search for Rachel Lloyd from Wrexham, Clwyd, after she failed to show up on a return flight from Turkey on Tuesday. She had flown out last week to be with Mehmet Ocack, 24, whom she met at Marmaris, a resort on the country's Mediterranean coast, during a half-term break in May. In phone calls home, she claimed to have married him and to want to have his children.
The Foreign Office said the couple had been found in Gaziantep, a city on Turkey's Syrian border. Last night, the Turkish Anatolia news agency reported that police had charged Mr Ocack with having sex with a minor. The age of consent in Turkey is 15 and Ocack faces up to 10 months in jail if convicted.
As Rachel's father, Bob, flew out to join his daughter, her mother, Karen Thomas, spoke of her relief. "I'm really pleased. It has been horrendous," she said. Ms Thomas said she did not know how she would react when she saw her daughter. "[I might] hug her, shout at her, I haven't got a clue." Ms Thomas, who refers to Mr Ocack by his nickname, Steve, said she and her daughter needed help from social services. "[Rachel] said she only focuses on Steve and nothing else. She is besotted by him and she doesn't listen to anyone else at all," she said.
Rachel returns to a public row between her paternal grandmother, Carol Lloyd, who appears to have sanctioned the romance, and her parents. Ms Lloyd with whom Rachel lived said the teenager was being "exploited" and "let down" by her parents, who had told their story to the Daily Mirror.
Mr Lloyd rejected his mother's accusations. "I just want my daughter back," he said.
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