A Social worker who endured "hell on earth" in an Arab jail for more than two years has been reunited with his family near Selby.

Ian Bamling, 31, was today visiting his father and brother in Beal after serving half of a five-year sentence for possessing a tiny amount of cannabis and several bottles of alcohol - charges he always denied.

Mr Bamling arrived home yesterday aboard a Royal Brunei Airways jet after being granted a pardon, to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

His freedom follows a long campaign by his family, which saw his wheelchair-bound father, Bob, 64, of The Oval, Beal, travel to Abu Dhabi in October to plead for his release. Ian's brother, Robert, who runs a taxi business from his home in Beal, received a phone call on Christmas Eve from the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi, saying Ian had been pardoned and would be home on Boxing Day.

Robert said today: "It came like a bolt out of the blue - it's the Christmas present we've been praying for."

His overjoyed mother, Pontefract Infirmary nurse Sally Bell, 54, said: "Who says there isn't a Santa Claus?"

Mr Bamling spoke today of the hellhole jail in the desert where he was fed a diet of bread and custard, and contracted a number of diseases and conditions including scabies. He said he shared a 16ft by 12ft cell with 14 other prisoners, and slept on prayer mats on a concrete floor.

Temperatures reached up to 50C, and about 3,000 prisoners shared just 15 makeshift showers.

He told the Evening Press: "It's the end of a nightmare. But I'm not bitter, just very angry and sad about the people I left behind.

"There are some people in that jail who are equally innocent and are suffering needlessly.

"You can't image the purgatory we went through."

Mr Bamling added: "Being home is like a dream - it hasn't sunk in yet. Now all I want to do is talk with my family, relax and get some sleep."

Mr Bamling had gone to Abu Dhabi for a holiday with a woman friend. He was arrested at the airport when three grammes of cannabis were allegedly found in a camera bag. Both insisted it was a bag they had borrowed from a friend.

Brother Robert said: "The jail was like something from a horror film with an open drain for toilets, and just one bucket of water a day for each cell. Ian was constantly suffering from body lice, and lost several stones."

Father Bob, a retired miner, said: "It's been a living nightmare, and I'm just glad it's all over."