A convicted killer may be sent back to jail after he returned to the seaside town where he committed his crime after being freed early.

Home Office officials are now seeking urgent talks with Turkish authorities to see if Hakan Yagiz can be returned to prison.

However, the Crown Prosecution Service has said it cannot do anything because he was tried in Turkey.

Yagiz, 32, was sentenced to 36 years' hard labour in Istanbul for killing Gill Montgomery, 53, at her flat in St Leonards in April 1995.

His imprisonment in May 1999 followed a four-year battle to bring him to justice after he fled to Turkey to join the army.

Sussex Police fought to get him extradited but Turkish officials insisted he would be tried in Turkey.

However, the Turkish government freed him after just a year under a conditional mass release of prisoners, effectively pardoning him.

Questions are now being asked about how a killer can return to East Sussex without British authorities or Ms Montgomery's family knowing.

Police only found out Yagiz had been freed when officers attended a domestic incident in St Leonards two weeks ago.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We understand he has been released after serving only one year. We find this completely unacceptable and are seeking urgent clarification from the Turkish authorities."

At the weekend, Yagiz - who holds dual Turkish and British nationality - was at his parents' end-of-terrace house in Seven Acre Close, St Leonards.

It is within five miles of Ms Montgomery's flat.

Many of her friends and relatives still live in the area. Her relatives have said they are "appalled" at his release.

Yagiz, in his defence, said he was high on drugs when he broke into her flat to steal possessions to feed his habit.

He said he wanted to put past events behind him so he could carry on with his life.

Divorcee Ms Montgomery worked as a nursing sister at the Conquest Hospital, Hastings, while serving as a church elder for St Luke's Church in Silverhill, St Leonards.

She was also a Sunday school teacher and youth leader. After retiring due to illness she continued working at the Conquest as a volunteer, comforting the sick.

Chief Superintendent Dick Barton, of Hastings police, has said the force is liaising with government authorities to find out how he was freed and expressed frustration at the decision.