Deaf charity worker Ian Stillman has arrived back in the UK on Friday after being freed from prison in India.

Mr Stillman, 52, was welcomed at Heathrow Airport by cheers from family and friends.

He is planning to seek a pardon over his conviction for drug smuggling which earned him a 10-year jail sentence.

I was in jail far, far longer than I thought I would have been Ian Stillman

Arriving with son, Lennie, 23, he said: "It's brilliant to be free again."

Then, using sign language interpreted by his son, he read out a prepared statement thanking people for all their support and hard work over the last two years.

"I was in jail far, far longer than I thought I would have been," he said.

"I thought I would be freed after six months but it has taken just over two years."

'Uncivilised disgrace'

Mr Stillman, who also lost a leg in a car crash, was freed from prison in Shimla, north of Delhi, on Saturday after serving two years.

He was released on health grounds, after the personal intervention of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, but has not been acquitted.

Stephen Jacobi, of Fair Trials Abroad which campaigned for Mr Stillman's release, was critical of the Indian police and the British consular services.

Arriving at Heathrow with his son Lennie

He said police corruption and Mr Stillman's disability combined to make it "an uncivilised disgrace" - one of the worst miscarriages of justice he had worked on.

He called for an inquiry into the behaviour of the consular division.

Earlier this week his father Roy Stillman, from York, told the BBC that the family's main concern was getting his son back to full health before seeking to clear his name.

Family overjoyed

"Only when he's stronger and he's had the medical attention he desperately needs will he be able to fight the question of his pardon," said Mr Stillman.

"Then he will be strong enough and perfectly able to fight his own corner.

"Until then, we're only concerned about his health and we're absolutely overjoyed that he's free."

Campaigners petitioned for Mr Stillman's release

Mr Straw, who met the Indian Minister for External Affairs Yashwant Sinah on Wednesday, said he thanked him for his assistance in relation to Mr Stillman's case and other UK consular issues.

The Indian authorities had come under increasing pressure to free Mr Stillman, who is deaf, has an artificial leg and diabetes.

He was found guilty of smuggling 20 kilograms of cannabis in August 2000 after the drug was found in a shared taxi, but has always maintained his innocence.

Mr Stillman has spent most of his life working for deaf causes in India.

But the authorities at his original trial refused to believe he could not hear and refused him an interpreter.

Earlier this year his case was dismissed by the appeal court and he was later refused leave to appeal to India's supreme court.

Mr Stillman said on Friday that his wife Sue would continue their work on two projects in the south of the country and he hoped to return there himself one day.