But Jill Campbell condemned the charity that pursued defamation charges against her and her husband over her exposure of abuse at its home.

Mrs Campbell, 45, said Swiss charity Terre Des Hommes-Lausanne was wasting donors' money pushing the case through the courts when it should have been apologising to and compensating victims.

Mrs Campbell said she would have been prepared to serve the possible six-month sentence as a way of drawing attention to the case.

She said she and her husband Gary had spoken to her two adopted 10-year-old children and explained her reasons for not backing down.

She refused to apologise to the charity over claims it had covered up the actions of paedophiles at its home in the village of Jari.

She was convicted of defamation by a court in Addis Ababa but because she refused to say sorry, was due to go to prison until the charity backed down.

She said: "Obviously I'm very happy but it's very difficult because I wanted to draw attention to the case.

"Terre Des Hommes have backed down at the last minute ... I think because Gary has apologised. They are going to use that and say that because of that there is no case to answer.

"As far as I'm concerned the matter isn't over. There are victims who still do not have an apology or compensation, and until they get that nothing has changed."