A businessman who was locked up for a murder he did not commit in Africa four years ago is being treated at Bradford Royal Infirmary after picking up a deadly strain of malaria on a return trip to the continent.

French national Jacques Lapergue, 65, who founded the Antique Glass Studio in Bierley, Bradford, was incarcerated in a dirty and cramped police cell for more than a week after he found a corpse lying in an alleyway in Zambia in 2008.

Despite his experience, the committed Christian and missionary worker decided to fly to neighbouring Malawi last month to visit an orphanage and meet young people whose college education he is helping to fund.

He said that on a tiring trip to Lake Malawi he was bitten by a mosquito, after which he became seriously ill.

He was taken to a hospital near the lake before being transferred to another hospital where he was given an injection to treat the disease.

He returned to Bradford, but last week he was rushed to the city’s Royal Infirmary after suffering a relapse.

“It came back very strongly,” he said. “It changes – one day you are fine and the following day you are very tired. In Africa I was sweating so much you could have taken water out of my T-shirt.

“This time, if I had not been taken by ambulance to hospital I could have died.

“I’ve never caught it in 30 years of going to Africa.

“At the moment I am so happy to be back in England. It’s like a breath of fresh air.”

He said he plans to return to Africa when he has made a full recovery. “You can do a lot with very little there,” he said.

On the trip to Lake Malawi, he said, he came across a gemstone mine, which he plans to investigate further on future trips.