A Bradford businessman who was incarcerated in an African jail for a murder he did not commit is returning to the place where he faced the ordeal three years ago.

French national Jacques Lapergue, 64, founder of the Antique Glass Studio in Bierley, was kept in a filthy and cramped police cell for more than a week in April 2008 after he found a corpse lying in an alleyway.

Residents of Chipata, a Zambian town near to where the body was found, wrongly believed he was responsible for the death and he was severely beaten, before being arrested and charged with murder.

Charges against the committed Christian were later dropped due to lack of evidence, after support from Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe, and a senior official at the French Embassy in Zambia and Malawi.

Mr Lapergue, who has lived in Bradford for more than 30 years, yesterday boarded a plane for a three- month trip to Africa for missionary work and will spend some of the time in Chipata, where he hopes to work with orphans and Aids sufferers.

He will be accompanied by a respected figure from the village community for his trip.

He said: “On my own it is not very right, it would be unsafe. I will be safe with him because he is very well known in Chipata.

“I want to offer forgiveness to the people in the area and show I have good, not bad feelings for them. I want to show them I want to help in the area. It is a very poor area.”

Mr Lapergue said returning to Africa felt like the right thing to do.

“I had a deep urge to go there, it’s like something has been renewed. If I was apprehensive I would not be going. I have got to go in perfect peace. I go there to love and to forgive, not for anything else.”