Jail for Runaway Schoolgirl's Turkish Lover

The schoolgirl who ran away to Turkey to marry a barman watched yesterday as a court jailed him for statutory rape.

Rachael Lloyd, 15, from Wrexham in north Wales, met Mehmet Ocak, 24, known as Steve, while holidaying with her grandmother and sister in the resort of Marmaris.

She went back to Turkey last year, aged 14, to be with him. She was reported missing on December 3 and was tracked to Ocak's home city of Gaziantep by Interpol and the Turkish police.

Her father, Bob Lloyd, brought her home later that month.

Yesterday a court in Gaziantep sentenced Ocak to five years three months, and 10 days in prison for statutory rape - sex with an underage girl - and holding her against her will, the Anatolia News Agency reported.

Rachael and her father attended the trial and she burst into tears on hearing the verdict.

Ocak had initially denied the charge, claiming he had believed she was 15 at the time, the age of consent in Turkey.

Yesterday he acknowledged that he had known her true age, but said they had got engaged and that she had not been made to do anything against her will.

"This love would never end," he said as he was taken from court to prison.

Rachael earlier gave evidence to the court in which she denied the pair had had sex. But in a previous statement she admitted they had a sexual relationship.

Ocak told the court he had warned her of the consequences of staying in Turkey, but she would not leave.

"I told Rachael that problems would occur and she had to go. But she did not go.

"Rachael said that she loved me so much, and wanted an engagement with me. We got engaged at the hotel."

The barman said she had gone "crying and unwillingly" back to Britain with her family.

"I did not hold her by force, and I did not rape her," he said. "I knew that she was under legal age. I did not say that I had sexual intercourse with her.

"I accepted her to stay with me since she was my fiancee."

Before flying out for the trial, Rachael told a newspaper: "I am going to Turkey because I don't see why he should be locked up. It was my idea to run away to Turkey and to have sex with him.

"I'm just going crazy worrying about him locked up in a prison cell."