A Dutch court has decided that teenage sailor Laura Dekker can stay with her father. Laura had been missing for a week. She flew to Paris on her own and then onto the Dutch Caribbean island of St Maarten.

She first made the headlines with her ambition to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. The courts ruled against it because of her age, but her father Dick Dekker said it is still her dream: “Her wish is of course still to go sailing around the world.”

Dutch child welfare authorities had wanted Laura to be removed from her father’s care, but have failed to secure a ruling. She has been back in the Netherlands since Tuesday. Laura managed to fly to Paris on her New Zealand passport. Police are now investigating how the 14 year old managed to board an intercontinental flight on her own, against European rules.

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