Badly let down by school and police

The whole Jeremy Forrest saga reeks to high heaven.

The man in the dock whispered “I love you” across the courtroom and his young lover mouthed “I’m sorry” back.

No doubt, in their heads, they thought they were starring in some sort of movie about star crossed lovers, but the reality is that the man teacher Jeremy Forrest abused his position of trust in order to have sex then abduct with an underage and vulnerable young girl.

I’m sure she really believes she’s still in love with him, even after he was found guilty this week of abduction when two of them fled to France leaving chaos and heartbreak in their wake.

Forrest’s wife was utterly distraught and the family of the schoolgirl (who cannot be named for legal reasons) were going out of their minds with worry.

I actually spoke to her dad a couple of days after the couple went missing and he was beside himself with fear and dread about what had happened, but just kept saying that he wanted his little girl home. At that point they don’t know whether she was alive or dead and they had to endure a very long week of uncertainty.

At the time, there was speculation that they would both enter into some sort of Romeo and Juliet suicide pact.

I am sure in their fantasy world they were living in, they both saw themselves as deeply misunderstood, but we have to remember that despite all that has happened, we are talking about a very young girl.

What I find baffling is why no one at the school stepped in and prevented this whole fiasco from happening in the first place.

The signs were all there and it was clear that the girl and her teacher had some sort of attraction to one another, but the authorities failed to protect her.

Forrest first kissed her when she was just 14 and he groomed her by swapping text messages before ending up having sex at his house when she was still only 15.

They openly held hands on a school trip and their relationship was the talk of the Bishop Bell C of E school in Eastbourne. And yet no one in authority appears to have intervened.

This was an “open secret” that they were all apparently happy to ignore.

Forrest was given a few warnings, but the couple simply ignored them and continued seeing each other.

The police have also come under fire for failing to act quickly enough to prevent them both from fleeing abroad.

The whole sorry saga reeks to high heaven. A young girl has been badly let down and a teacher was able to abuse her.

There have been relationships between pupils and teachers that have worked out in the end.

I have friends who have been married for more than 20 years who met while she was a student who fell in love with her teacher. The crucial difference was that she was well over 16 and the relationship did not become sexual until she had actually left the centre of learning.

They are both very happy, but it is far more common for these sorts of liaisons to end in tears.

This mixed up schoolgirl has vowed to wait for Forrest to come out of jail and says they will set up home together.

I think the reality of living with an ex jail bird with no job and no prospect of a decent career will soon put an end to her schoolgirl crush.

She has her whole life ahead of her and she shouldn’t tie herself to a man who has proved he enjoys seducing underage girls.

I hope she sees sense before she throws her future away.