London, England - A British teacher jailed in Sudan for insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Mohammed voiced relief at her release Tuesday, as she arrived home to an emotional family reunion after a presidential pardon.
Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old mother of two, said she was horrified at the furore she had unwittingly caused, but said she bore no ill-will towards Sudan or its people.
"I was very upset to think that I may have caused offence to people, very, very upset about it," she told a brief news conference after arriving at London's Heathrow airport on an overnight flight from Dubai.
"I'm just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure and got a lot more adventure than what I was looking for."
Gibbons looked tired but happy as she repeatedly hugged her son, John, and daughter, Jessica, who had travelled from Liverpool, north-west England, to greet their mother.
She was accompanied home by the two British Muslim members of the House of Lords who helped secure her pardon by Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir.
Beshir signed the pardon after meeting Lord Nazir Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who flew to Khartoum at the weekend to petition for Gibbons' early release.
Gibbons was arrested on November 25 and sentenced to 15 days in prison last Thursday for insulting religion by allowing children at an English school to name a teddy bear Mohammed.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison, 40 lashes and a fine, and some protesters in Sudan thought she had been treated leniently.
Sudan enforces Islamic Sharia law in Khartoum, where alcohol is banned and most women dress modestly. For devout Muslims, any physical depiction of the prophet Mohammed is blasphemous and strictly forbidden.
Britain welcomed Gibbons' release after eight days as a victory for "common sense" following what it said had been an "innocent misunderstanding", while her family and friends have also expressed joy and relief.
The secretary-general of Britain's main umbrella organisation for Muslim groups, Muhammad Abdul Bari, said Tuesday there was "clearly no intention" on Gibbons' part to deliberately insult Islam.
"Mrs Gibbons should never have been arrested in the first place. We are sure she will be warmly welcomed back to the UK by all Britons, both Muslim and non-Muslim," said the Muslim Council of Britain chief.
Gibbons described her incarceration as "terrifying", telling reporters: "It has been an ordeal but I was well treated in prison and everyone was very kind to me."
She thanked Ahmed and Warsi and everyone else who helped secure her release, and said: "I am very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time. It is a beautiful place and I had a chance to see some of the countryside.
"The Sudanese people I found to be extremely kind and generous and until this happened I only had a good experience. I wouldn't like to put anyone off going to Sudan."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown was one of the first to phone Gibbons after her arrival, his office said.
Gibbons said she had no immediate plans other than spending Christmas with her family, but her first priority after that was finding a job.
Her arrest and jail sentence sparked outrage in Britain and a diplomatic crisis between London and Khartoum, further straining relations already frayed over the nearly five year war in Sudan's Darfur province.
Warsi told BBC radio Tuesday negotiations had been tough, but wider issues like Darfur had been off the agenda.
"My reasoning for going out there was a single agenda: as a British woman to go and help another British woman," she said.