Runaway teenager flees back to her Egyptian boyfriend - again

By PAUL SIMS and TOM KELLY

Last updated at 01:36 02 October 2007

A schoolgirl who flew to Egypt after a holiday romance has fled the UK for a second time in a desperate bid to marry her 29-year-old lover.

Amy Robson, 17, is thought to have travelled more than 2,000 miles to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada to be with internet cafe owner Mohammed El Sayed.

The couple met in April when Amy flew to Egypt to be with a married boathand she had met whilst there on holiday with her parents James and Janet.

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When he failed to respond to her emails she and El Sayed began chatting.

Within 12 hours, the couple say, they fell hopelessly in love and got engaged.

But their whirlwind romance came to an abrupt end when Amy was taken into the care of British officials before reluctantly returning home with her parents to the tiny Cumbrian village of Beaumont.

El Sayed, whose English is limited, thrown into jail accused of kidnapping her but was later released without charge.

It is believed the couple made a pact in which Amy promised to return to Egypt if they were ever parted due to the controversy surrounding their relationship.

Police yesterday confirmed that Amy had been reported missing by her mother on Friday last week after she failed to return home from college.

An international search was launched to trace the teenager but was called off after she contacted her family by email to tell them her whereabouts.

The bizarre romance began during the Easter holidays when Amy, who was at home on her own to study for her AS-Level exams, flew to Egypt to be with married boathand Tamer Hossny.

She tried to contact him from El Sayed's internet cafe in a rundown area of Hurghada, but within hours had transferred her affections to El Sayed.

They travelled to Cairo together to organise the paperwork for the wedding, and went to stay with his parents in a small apartment in an impoverished village 12 miles north of the Egyptian capital.

Amy started learning Arabic to be able to speak with his mother, with whom she shared a bedroom during her stay, and the couple planned their future.

They even decided on names for their children, Amy opting to give a son the Arabic name Yusuf while her fiance wanted a daughter called Diana, after the late Princess of Wales.

Hours before they were due to wed, she fell ill and had to go to hospital for emergency surgery to have her appendix removed.

She spent a few days recovering with El Sayed's family.

When the couple learned that the police were looking for them, they returned to Hurghada to sort things out.

El Sayed was promptly taken to the Egyptian prosecutor's office where details of the allegations against him were outlined with Amy in attendance.

She protested his innocence and wanted to stay in Egypt but her parents, who flew out to be with her after she was found, lured her to the airport after claiming she was going on a sightseeing tour and took her back to the UK.

El Sayed was released from prison just 15 minutes after Amy flew out of Egypt.

He declared through an interpreter: "I will wait as long as it takes, for ever if I must.

"She is the only love of my life. Even if she never comes back I will not marry another woman because all I want is Amy.

"It was the first love for both of us. It was as if we were both missing something and when we met we each found it."

And in broken English he made a direct plea to his teenage sweetheart, saying: "I miss you many, many, many. I want to be with you always."

Last night, Amy's parents James, 42, an electrician, and mother Janet, 33, were unavailable for comment.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: "Amy Robson is no longer considered as a missing person after she made e-mail contact with her family today.

"Police had been alerted to Amy's disappearance after she failed to return to her parents home on Friday."