THE father of a runaway teenager has paid an emotional tribute to the Adver after his daughter returned home.

Shanice Buckle, 15, had disappeared from her home in the north of England, and both father Eric and detectives investigating the case believed she may be in Swindon.

Now the two have been reunited, after Shanice and a 17-year-old then-boyfriend spotted the appeal for her whereabouts in the Adver on Friday.

She handed herself in at a police station in Cirencester later that day after travelling there from Swindon, where she had apparently been staying for a week.

Father-of-two Eric, 44, from Huddersfield, said he felt like one of “the lucky parents”.

“The gentleman who was with her saw the piece in the Swindon Advertiser,” he said.

“At last I can sleep at nights. She knew how I felt about her going out with this gentleman, and being a rebellious teenager, the more it swung towards them dating.

“They’d been in Swindon for about a week. The whole experience, to try and put it into words, with her missing it was like a part of me was gone.

“If she hadn’t have come back to me, I would’ve been living the rest of my life in a mental state.”

Shanice, who was described as a model pupil, was reported missing on March 29.

She was last seen at around 8.30am leaving her home in Crosland Moor and going to school.

It is believed she spent a couple of days in London before coming to Swindon.

Mr Buckle said: “I can’t thank you guys enough for the story you printed.

“I consider myself to be a lucky parent, because you hear stories all the time. If she’d ended up in the underworld in London there was no way I’d have seen her again.

“I was almost in tears. It’s taken a lot to hold the tears back.

“I’d like to thank everyone involved for getting it out there so quickly.

“I just had this feeling she was in Swindon.”

Police in Huddersfield said that because she appears to have left entirely of her own accord, there will not be any criminal proceedings.