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France holiday couple find stowaway hiding in car boot

Getty Images Vehicles at Portsmouth PortGetty Images
The couple found a stowaway in their car boot nine hours after arriving back in the UK

A couple driving home after a holiday in France found a man in their car boot nine hours into their journey.

Helen Gwyn and Richard Morris Jones believe the stowaway climbed aboard when they left their vehicle to get food the previous afternoon, shortly before boarding a ferry at Caen.

They resumed the car journey at 06:00 BST the next day but only became aware of movement in the boot hours later.

"Looking back, the inside of the car had steamed up," said Ms Gwyn.

"I put the wipers on - but it was inside."

The Home Office declined to comment on the case but said "unacceptable numbers" were crossing the border illegally "putting unprecedented strain on our asylum system".

Ms Gwyn recalled how she and her husband watched officials "thoroughly" searching caravans and other vehicles ahead of them.

Family Photo Richard Morris Jones and Helen GwynFamily Photo
Richard Morris Jones and Helen Gwyn found a stowaway in the boot of their Citroen C3 after holidaying in France

But she said no search was made of their "little" Citroen C3 before leaving the port at Portsmouth.

Later, while en route home to Caernarfon, Gwynedd, the couple heard a knocking sound coming from the rear of the car.

And then Ms Gwyn noticed the rear parcel shelf moving.

She stopped the car as they reached the A494 near Queensferry, Flintshire, so her husband could get out and check the boot was properly closed.

"As he came back to sit, this head came out through the shelf in the back," said Ms Gwyn.

She said it was "terrifying experience" and her husband asked the young man what he was doing in their car.

"'I've got a coat', he said, stepping out of the boot, grabbing a black puffer coat and walking away," she added.

On reflection, she said there were signs that the man had been in the car for several hours.

"He had opened where the fuses are kept in the back of the car and had left a tobacco pouch which had obviously been bought in France with French writing on it."

Ms Gwyn said they alerted the police about the incident.

"This man, whoever he his, is someone's son," she said.

"He must be desperate or in an awful state to go to such pains to try to come into the country that way."