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A MARRIED BRITISH teacher has been found guilty of abducting a 15-year-old schoolgirl after they fled together to France.
A jury found 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest guilty over the episode in which the pair spent seven days on the run, sparking a high-profile international search.
The prosecution had labelled the mathematics teacher a “paedophile” who had “groomed” the vulnerable teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
But the girl said in evidence that she had encouraged the relationship.
“Jeremy Forrest grossly abused the trust placed in him,” detective inspector Mark Ling told reporters outside the court. “It is every parent’s worst nightmare to have a child abducted.”
As the jury returned to deliver its verdict after a two-week trial, Forrest told the girl: “I love you.” She burst into tears as the guilty verdict was announced, and told him “I’m sorry” as he was led away to the cells.
He is to be sentenced tomorrow. The charge of abduction carries a maximum sentence of seven years.
Forrest has been in custody since his arrest in France in September.
Ahead of the verdict, his father Jim collapsed in the court and was taken to hospital.
Forrest met the pupil at a school in southeast England, and they first kissed when she was 14, Lewes Crown Court heard.
They exchanged flirtatious text messages, topless photos of her and publicly visible tweets, then began a sexual relationship shortly after her 15th birthday, although colleagues had repeatedly warned Forrest to keep his distance.
For several weeks Forrest would pick her up in her school uniform for regular trysts in his car, in hotels and at his marital home.
The girl, now 16, said in a police interview: “It got to the point where there was only so much of a friendship you could have before it developed into something else.”
The two fled Britain after she was questioned by police, who seized her phone, meaning the affair was bound to be exposed.
With the schoolgirl using Forrest’s wife’s passport, they boarded a cross-Channel ferry to Calais in France on September 20 last year.
Police launched a highly publicised search as family and friends issued frantic appeals for their return.
The pair dyed their hair, adopted false names and threw away Forrest’s mobile phone.
They were finally found a week later as Forrest was trying to find work in Bordeaux, southwest France. A bar owner recognised him and called police.
In a statement read out on the girl’s behalf outside the court, the schoolgirl’s mother said “every aspect of our lives has been affected to some degree” by the case.
“As a family, for the last nine months it’s been like living out your worst nightmare,” she said.
Forrest’s defence lawyer had argued he felt he had to run away with the girl because she was “desperate and suicidal” and he feared she would harm herself.
The teacher himself, a keen amateur musician, chose not to testify in his own defence.
He had been married for a year at the time of the affair, but relations with his wife were strained, jurors were told.
Prosecutors acknowledged that the teenager had gone willingly to France, but this could not be used as a defence.
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The Greek government is really frustrating not only has Europe bent over backward to help them while Ireland like the mugs are government are pay the full price of a bailout but now they do this, I never agree with sarkozy but on this occasion I do!!
Let’s be honest, the Greeks deserve little sympathy for the disgraceful way they cooked the books to get into Europe, the way they continually run their country in the awful manner and in the way they have been expectibg everybody else to sort out their problems with no negative ramifications.
But I don’t have a problem with them having a referendum on what will be a huge financial decision made by a country that could effect millions for decades. It is a truly democratic act. Irrespective of whether or not the Greeks caused their own downfall , it’s an act of oppression for European leaders to force savage cuts without the agreement of the Greek people.
Don’t want to hear that Greece signed up to this with eu as nobody who signed upto join Europe envisaged this scenario.
While it annoys and puts the rest of us out, I think the Greek government gave its people the choice to take harsh medicine or go down a potentially harder route. For me that’s very much less efficient then taking the tough choices for your country but it’s as democratic as it gets.
Stable door, horse bolt, shutting afterwards …. Etc etc
what an outrageous suggestion to let the people affected by the austerity measures decide their fate …thank god our government aren’t that foolish and continue to do our thinking for us
I’d welcome a referendum here. It’d be good to see those who advocate a rejection of the IMF and a unilateral default lay their cards on the table. I think the response of the Irish people would be interesting when they see the figures.
ok to all the people who may have had a sarcasm by pass… i will spell it out plainly… we should have had a referendum 2 years ago but those in power (in their wisdom) decided that they know whats best for US and we should just put up and shut up and take the austerity medicine …in order to protect their own elitist asses….
Where do they expect the money to come from? Is it not a clever tactic by papandreou to make them tow the line a bit? Surely they’ll have to vote yes whether they really want it or not and then he proceeds effectively with the support of the nation, rather than taking the blame for the decision himself, the whole country make the decision which in turn might diminish the civil unrest……either that of they kick off big style, vote no and then he’s F*****d!!!
The wording of the referendum will be vital. They probably won’t define what No means. If it was defined as ‘Greece unilaterally defaults and leaves Euro’ then Greeks might vote Yes. If it is defined ‘Greece will reject this deal and look for a better one’ then it will probably be a No vote.
But I can see the ECB etc getting rightly frustrated with this. They might frame the No vote as being a rejection by Greece of the Euro and just accept that Greece is defaulting and leaving the Euro. it’d be very tempting to be rid of the Greek problem once and for all. Taxpayers in Germany would love the idea. But the worries about how bad Greece might get would probably be too much. However bad Greece is, it could get a hell of a lot worse.
I Presume a referendum will take months to arrange (and probably be lost) and all the while the rest of Europe suffers more Market turmoil. I also presume no mention was made by the Greeks of a referendum when agreeing to an extremely generous bailout package. If that be the case, the deal should be taken off the table and let Greece paddle it’s own (very leaky) canoe outside of the Eurozone. Better to stand back and watch Greece burn rather than fiddle while the rest of us do.
We are watching what will be the end of euro. Greece will never be able to service there debt, Italy is now in trouble with Portugal,Spain,Belgium & Ireland all waiting in the wings. Hopefully they find away for members to return to there own currency’s and dissolve the euro. Not an easy task I know.
We all know this going to end in tears, so why keep dragging it out. Let’s ended it know and start the rebuilding process sooner rather than later.
Europes grand fudge began to unravel yesterday before Greeces referendum announcement.
China’s official statement on Sunday that it will not be bailing Europe out put the initial spanner in the works.
EU leaders proposal is heavy on aspiration but light on concrete measures.
Europes crisis may well overtake events before any Greek poll.
At long last.. the turkeys will have a say on Christmas.
This is brilliant move. Watch the suits shaking in their boots and remember keep laughing when they start the scaremongering. The fairy story called capitalism a la brothers Grimm is coming to an end.
End it now guys and put away your lovely lecterns over there in Brussels. Professional unelected bullying is not a real job anyway and I fear you will all find it quite hard back with the rest of us in the real world here on planet Earth
Home of democracy allows its citizens exercise democracy at the ballot box. Seems reasonable. How many in Ireland would have voted through the Cowen-Lenihan bak guarantee?
Depends on the alternative. No doubt you wod paint No, and unilateral default, as being fantastic. Let’s have your vote nw and see how things stand. Let’s see if the unions are happy with the bailout or want a default. Lets see if the multinationals are spooked by a unilateral default. Let’s see how Sinn Fein plan to balance the books when the country has no access to borrowing.
Let’s see some facts and figures. I want to see this populist message that telling the IMF to get stuffed will mean that the government will be able to spend more money really get explained in detail to the Irsh people.
The Cowen-Lenihan bank guarantee shifted the private debts of the banks onto the sovereign balance sheet, the taxpayer balance sheet in effect. The knock on effect has produced NAMA, the majority of its debt is due to just 650 borrowers, and bumper bank recapitalisations. Meanwhile, in the midst of all this ‘recovery’ and fixing ‘systemic’ banks such as Anglo and INBS, credit is tighter than ever, property prices are still falling, mortgage distress is worsening, insolvencies in SMEs are ‘levelling out’ after four years of a flood, unemployment is topped at an artificial ‘low’ of 450k due to emigration, record numbers in third level and in various schemes. Having referendums on policies that carry the risk of bankrupting one if not two generations, and tearing up the social fabric of families for decades, do not strike me as unreasonable.
3 holes in EU’s debt plan. Not including any hint as to how renewed growth is to be achieved.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/31/european-debt-deal-holes/?section=money_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+%28Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+International
Only growth will resolve Europes crisis.
http://ukhousebubble.blogspot.com/2011/10/only-economic-growth-can-resolve.html?m=1
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