A schoolgirl's sexual relationship with her uncle will be allowed to continue after a court in Germany ruled the pair had a right to be together.

The teenager from Schildow, Brandenburg, has been with the 48-year-old since she was 14 and the couple ran away together last year sparking a police manhunt.

Upon returning to Germany having been found in the south of France, a court has now ruled the now 16-year-old will be able to stay with her boyfriend with the judge ruling the prohibition of love is a threat to the child's well-being.

The teenager (left) from Schildow, Brandenburg, has been with the 48-year-old (right) since she was 14 and the couple ran away together last year sparking a police manhunt

The pair fled when the girl's worried parents contacted police, but after returning to Germany she refused to break off the romance.

Her parents sent her to a psychiatric clinic for several weeks in a bid to get her to change her mind.

She was only released after managing to arrange a legal counsel, who got her freed and filed a legal challenge for the right to a relationship of her own choice.

And now the regional appeal court of Brandenburg has confirmed the ruling in favour of the couple.

The presiding judge said it was important to 'get the relationship out of secrecy' adding the prohibition of love is a threat to the child's well-being.

In the ruling, the court noted Josephine has clear views and priorities, which she has also claimed and demanded.

Additionally, she has consistently expressed her desire for a relationship with her uncle as 'goal-oriented and stable'.

The decision also notes the girl has an 'above average intelligent' and was a 'girl who had matured early and quickly reflected a lot on what she wanted'.

The court's opinion summarised that while 'the relationship may be undesirable and socially ostracised, it is not forbidden.'

The car the the German schoolgirl and her uncle used to escape to the south of France

In Germany the age of sexual consent is 14, like in most European countries, as long as a person over the age of 21 does not exploit a 14 or 15-year-old person's lack of capacity for sexual self-determination.

Paediatric and adolescent psychotherapist Barbara Breuer-Radbruch advised parents should generally seek contact, talk, and discuss solutions with the child.