A VOLUNTARY worker convicted of sexually assaulting a toddler in Ghana could soon be returning to the UK depending on the outcome of an appeal tomorrow.

Thomas Tichler of Redbourn Lane, Harpenden, denied the allegations, but was jailed in February last year for causing harm and indecently assaulting the three-year-old girl just two weeks into his three-month visit working with Voluntary Service Overseas.

The charity Fair Trials International, which took on Tichler’s case, disputed the medical findings used to convict the 57-year-old and claimed the little girl’s evidence was unreliable.

The appeal court has assured Mr Tichler and his family, who have remain unified in their support of him, that it will be making its decision on the case on Monday.

His son James said: “If things go well, we'll have the fun and games of finding his passport and sorting his visa, but I'm probably getting a bit ahead of myself there.

He added: “Dad did manage to wangle a quick phone call to me on his lawyer's mobile from the court complex and he sounded well, but frustrated as ever.

“He has been running down his food supplies in jail once again, expecting to be released.

“I've been trying to get him not to - he'll easily be able to give away anything he has left - but I can imagine that it’s impossible for him not to focus on what he believes is his impending freedom.”

But the appeal against Tichler’s conviction has come up against many obstacles, including the country’s former Attorney General who called for a longer sentence. The verdict has also been repeatedly adjourned – on each occasion raising and dashing the hopes of Tichler, his wife and three sons.

James said: “We've been at appeal now for ages. I think we lodged it just under a month after dad was convicted and it has been running ever since.

“We've seen two recesses - both summer and Christmas - come and go and each time we've been expecting something to happen, but the pace is excruciatingly slow.

“We've had a sequence of false alarms where we've thought we'd be getting the result we so desperately want only to receive adjournment after adjournment. I was in Ghana for one of these ‘getting our hopes up only for them to be dashed’ sessions in late January, after a longer adjournment which I had taken to be the last push, as it were.

“Sadly the judge, who did manage to turn up, called Dad's case, but then said that he hadn't had time to read the whole docket - he's had it now for over two months since the final submissions.”

The family are hoping a recent change in the country’s Government - and a newly-appointed Attorney General - could bring them justice following their 12-month battle.

“There has also been the election in Ghana which has, I think, been good for us as politics are so important in Ghana,” James said.

“It's the tribal mentality which underlies a lot of Ghanaian society and it was always against us in the beginning with our legal team being on, what was the opposition's side of things.

“Now that the former opposition - the NDC - are in power, things seem better. The old Attorney General, Joe Gharty, is no more and with him, I suspect, a lot of the bias has been removed.

“The new Attorney General has yet to take office, but our lawyer, Mr Lithur, has been involved in the judicial change committee and is generally quite close to the new Government, hopefully allowing our pleas to fall on kinder and more receptive ears.”