A British missionary couple pleaded guilty to charges of sedition against the Gambian government today.

David Fulton, 60, and his wife Fiona, 46, issued a public apology to the Gambian people at a court in Banjul.

“We are apologising to the people of the Gambia, which we see as our second home, and the President in particular for what we have done,” said Mr Fulton. “We have really regretted what we have done and would therefore extend our apologies to each and every Gambian.”

The couple - who come from Troon in Ayrshire and from Devon - were accused of undermining President Yahya Jammeh’s government. They were arrested in Banjul on November 29 and charged with printing, publishing or reproducing publications with intent to bring hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the president or the government.

Police say the couple wrote e-mails to individuals and organisations abroad, especially in Britain, criticising Gambia, a largely Muslim nation.

Their lawyer said last week they did not deny writing the e-mails, but the question was whether they did so with criminal intent.

The couple, who have a two-year-old adopted daughter, face a maximum prison sentence of one year and or a fine of 50,000 Dalasis ($1,865). Idrissa Mbai, the presiding magistrate, said that the couple would be sentenced on Tuesday, December 30.

The couple’s lawyer Antouman Gaye urged the court to keep any sentence to a minimum.

“The accused have been living in the Gambia since 1999 and have contributed a lot towards the socio-economic development of the country. This is a mistake and they have regretted what they have done,” he said. The pair made the country their home after initially visiting as tourists.

Gambia, a tiny West African country which nestles inside Senegal, has been criticised in recent years for its human rights record. President Jammeh, an outspoken military officer and former wrestler, has ruled the former British colony since seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1994.

The Fultons have ties to the Westhoughton Pentecostal Church outside Bolton, Greater Manchester.

According to the church’s website, Mr Fulton is chaplain for the Gambian army and has a ministry on the river, which involves reaching villages only accessible by boat. His wife looks after terminally ill people.

Mr Fulton helped establish a Gambia branch of the Christian organisation Prison Fellowship International. A newsletter published by the Fellowship said that Mr Fulton had fallen foul of Gambia's government in the past.

He was "arrested and banned from the prison system" after an inmate complained that he was trying to convert detainees. The Fellowship newsletter reported that Mr Fulton became a Christian while in prison in Britain. "I robbed security cars all over England," it quoted him as saying.

Mr Fulton also served in the British Army before becoming a missionary and moving to Gambia with his wife and their two children, who now live in England. After being banned from the Gambian prison system Mr Fulton became a military chaplain, a role that may have put him on a collision course with the unpredictable President.

Mr Jammeh is prone to outlandish claims and bouts of paranoia that see alleged plotters thrown in jail.

In recent years the eccentric 43-year old retired colonel claimed to have a secret cure for AIDS – his prescription is a green herbal paste and a diet of bananas. Mr Jammeh has visited the sick and dying waving his hands over their heads and chanting incantations rather than supplying anti-retrovirals.

A United Nations official who questioned the efficacy the president's 'cure' was thrown out of the country.

Rights groups were outraged earlier this year when Mr Jammeh told a rally that he would make the country's ban on homosexuality "tougher than the Iranian laws" and threatened to behead homosexuals giving them 24 hours to leave the country.