Paedophile teacher Jeremy Forrest has been jailed for five and a half years after he groomed a 15-year-old pupil for sex then abducted her when he was about to be found out.
Forrest pleaded guilty to five charges of sexual activity with a child, a day after he was convicted of child abduction. He admitted the new offences as he appeared at Lewes Crown Court to be sentenced for the abduction charge.
The 30-year-old Maths teacher, who took the pupil to France last year when he was about to be exposed, was not originally charged with sex offences for legal reasons linked to his extradition.
The jury took less than two hours to convict Forrest of child abduction yesterday following an eight-day trial. The defendant, who remained stony-faced, turned to the girl and said: “I love you,” as the verdict was about to be announced.
The girl sobbed and said “I am sorry” as he was led back to the cells.
Forrest befriended his “vulnerable” victim when she was just 14 .
She had just turned 15 when he started having sex with her, having groomed her for several months after she developed a crush on him at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
The court heard that the girl initially turned to Forrest for help with personal problems, enabling him to build a relationship with her before taking advantage of her.
The trial was told that Forrest would pick the girl up in her school uniform and they would have sex in his car, in hotels and at his marital home.
The girl told a friend that they had sex up to eight times a night.
The defendant also sent the girl “indecent images” of himself showing his naked torso with his hands down his underpants. She responded with pictures of her naked breasts.
The police and the school’s failure to prevent Forrest running off with the girl has come under criticism.
Police were not alerted until seven months after first concerns were raised and then when they were notified held a meeting rather than question or arrest Forrest immediately.
Teachers were first made aware of concerns about their relationship after a school trip to Los Angeles in February 2012. They were seen by several pupils to be holding hands during the return flight.
Forrest failed to heed words of advice from senior staff members and continued his relationship with the girl.
And despite a further warning to Forrest after inappropriate messages on Twitter were brought to the school’s attention, he was still able to continue seeing the girl.
Police were finally alerted on September 14 about an inappropriate relationship between them, and four days later a joint strategy meeting was held involving them, the school and education services.
The girl’s home was visited by a police officer and a social worker on September 19 and her mobile phone containing the indecent images was seized.
Fearing they were about to be discovered, Forrest, of Chislehurst Road, Petts Wood, Kent, booked them on a cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais the following day.
They spent seven days on the run in France but were caught when an British bar owner in Bordeaux contacted police after recognising Forrest when he applied for work at the bar using a bogus name.