Woman spared jail after helping refugee lover get to the UK

A former Front National supporter has been spared punishment after helping her lover, an Iranian refugee, cross into Britain.

Beatrice Huret, 44, helped Mokhtar and two other men cross the English Channel in a boat she had purchased for €1,000 (£885).

A French court on Tuesday found her guilty of helping Mokhtar leave France, but she was not given any punishment.

Ms Huret, who met the 34-year-old when she was volunteering at the Jungle camp in Calais, told the court she took "full responsibility" for her actions, and that she had been inspired by love.

"I am prepared to give up my life for him. The only thing that would bother me is that I would no longer be able to see Mokhtar if I'm in jail," she said.

During the trial prosecutor Camile Gourlin requested that Ms Huret be sentenced to one year in prison.

She argued that her actions had endangered the lives of Mokhtar and the other men.

"Solidarity is laudable but not at any price and not in any conditions," she said, making reference to the more than 5,000 people who died on refugee routes in the Mediterranean during 2016.

Ms Huret had previously supported the Front National, the French far-right, anti-immigration party led by Marine Le Pen.

But her life changed when she drove a young Sudanese man to the Jungle camp in Calais, near her home, in 2015.

The camp was an ad-hoc community of migrants, many of whom had fled nations including Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan, which over several years had evolved into a settlement of close to 10,000 people. It has since been demolished by the French state.

Ms Huret described meeting Mokhtar as "love at first sight". He has now been granted asylum in the UK, and is living in Sheffield where Ms Huret visits him regularly.

She has written a book, Calais Mon Amour, about her experiences.

Her previous husband, a border police officer, died of cancer in 2010.