IMAGINE the relief as the plane’s wheels lifted off the runway at Larnaca airport. The four-month suspended sentence had been handed down hours before, allowing the Midlands teenager to go home, but placing physical distance between herself and the trauma of the last five months in Cyprus must have brought some comfort to the 19-year-old and her mother.

It will not be easy to resume her life again. How could it be, given what she has been through?

Having alleged she was gang-raped by a group of Israeli youths, the woman says she was pressured by police into retracting her statement. She then found herself in the dock, accused and convicted of lying.

Now she has a criminal conviction and has been diagnosed as suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Footage of her is circulating on the internet. To think her adventure of living abroad for a season started with such hope.

There are many disturbing aspects to this case, not least what it has revealed about the standard of justice that exists in Cyprus. Being questioned for eight hours without a lawyer present, harangued by a judge, it was as if the clock had been turned back 40 years.

READ MORE: Cyprus backs its courts

Then there was the initial treatment of the woman and her family when they tried to get help. The Israeli youths were given immediate and effective consular assistance, but it was not until the teenager’s plight was exposed in the British media that the Foreign Office really started to get its act together.

It is not unknown for UK citizens finding themselves in trouble abroad to be treated as an embarrassing problem to be cleared away as quickly and quietly as possible. The Foreign Office prides itself on taking a softly-softly approach in difficult circumstances, but that does not always work.

To his credit, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, appears to have flexed more diplomatic muscle and exercised more savvy than some of his predecessors.

If only a previous incumbent of the office had done the same in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. A better Foreign Secretary might have helped to free the British-Iranian mother from jail in Iran. Instead, through laziness or incompetence, he made her situation worse. Whatever happened to that clown? Oh yes, he became the British Prime Minister.

Another troubling facet of this case is what it says about some young adults and their attitudes towards sex. Sex is seen not as a private matter but as a show to be filmed and shared. Those involved in the Cyprus incident are part of a generation that has been exposed to pornography like no other group before them. As a society I do not think we have even begun to grasp the poisonous effect this is having, particularly on girls. Porn, free and easily available to anyone with an internet connection, conditions boys into thinking of women as commodities. It encourages unrealistic expectations and makes both sexes think of themselves as inadequate and flawed. Revenge porn continues to flourish, despite new laws.

Who signed up for this horror show, and when are the internet giants going to tackle the monster they have unleashed, or be forced to do so by governments?

READ MORE: Teenager found guilty of lying

January, with its cold, miserable, post-Christmas days is the time for thoughts to turn to holidays. ‘Tis also the season to have “the conversation”. No, not that one. This is the conversation where a young adult of your acquaintance, son or daughter, niece or nephew, sibling or friend, say they have had this great idea about going on holiday with their pals. It will be fine because they are in a gang and will look after each other, and it is a proper holiday firm, with reps on hand to sort out problems. In any case, they are only a few hours away and can be contacted anytime.

Thousands of youngsters go away every year without incident. Maybe you did it, and it turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen, a real life-changing experience.

So why not say yes? They have to go out into the world at some point on their own. The arguments are reasonable, the points well made, the case for agreeing compelling. Why, then, does such a conversation leave you soaked in a clammy dread?

Young people today, if they are lucky enough to have around them people who love and care for them, spend the first part of their childhood being told how wonderful the world is and how special and precious they are. Life is Disney, David Attenborough, and birthday parties. Then we pull them up short. Actually, kids, the world can be a rotten, dangerous place. People are not always nice and mean well, and the sooner you toughen up the better. No wonder they are confused.

In some ways, today’s teenagers are far more clued up than we were. They know so much about the dangers lurking out there that they can even joke about them. They are encouraged to talk, to speak out when something is wrong. Any help and advice they need is just a Google search away.

But that same feeling of empowerment can blind them to their vulnerabilities, make them think that there is no situation they cannot get out of with a phone call.

READ MORE: Briton told she can return home

Making mistakes is an essential part of growing up. It is how you deal with them that matters in the long run. Resilience doesn’t come about from watching a YouTube video, however. Building strength of character has to start early and never stop. When the time comes to go their own way, all the older person can do is stand aside, albeit saying a little prayer as you do. What you hope is that other parents and carers have done their job in turning out people who will treat others as they would wish to be treated.

If you look hard enough there are positives to take away from the case of the Midlands teenager. There is her determination to appeal the verdict and clear her name. There is the way men and women, from Cyprus, Israel, and further afield, came to support her and her mother. She began as the Ayia Napa One; she was not standing alone at the end.

The world is far from a fair place. Let us never stop trying to make it more so.