The wife of a Bradford trucker sentenced to six years in a French jail spoke today of her year-long fight to clear his name.

Grandfather Terry O'Connor was sentenced in February after 50kg of cocaine was found in his load in Lille last May.

He was also fined 3.8 million euros (£2.8 million).

Mr O'Connor, 49, was on his way back from Barcelona when the French authorities found the illegal stash as he prepared to board a ferry.

His wife Janice, who has not seen him since he left for the trip, feared the worst when he didn't return.

"I thought he had died because he just disappeared," she said. "I spoke to him on the Saturday and then on Monday I had a call from the company he was working for. They asked if I had heard from Terry."

Mrs O'Connor, of Hollybank Gardens, Great Horton, registered him as missing and days later police told her what had happened.

She received a letter from Terry three weeks later and started to try to clear his name. Mrs O'Connor claims French police failed to investigate the case properly and described his trial as a "circus".

She believes her husband is the innocent scapegoat for an international drug smuggling ring.

The case has been taken up by Fair Trials Abroad, and is set to go to appeal in June. In the meantime, Mrs O'Connor said Terry has had to suffer terrible conditions in the French jail. He has lost five-and-a-half stone and he has abscesses.

"I think it's the stress," she said.

"I know how I am feeling about it all, so I can imagine what Terry is going through."

This is not the first time that Mr O'Connor has faced trouble in his 28-year career as an international lorry driver.

In April 2000 he was threatened at gunpoint by an illegal immigrant after he saw two other men trying to steal from his trailer in Belgium.

But despite this, Mrs O'Connor said her husband is still determined to carry on driving. She said: "I did ask him if would this be it, would he stop going abroad, but he said all he would do is check his load more often, it won't put him off."