UK teacher jailed over 5 years for child sex and abduction
Source: AFP |
June 22, 2013, Saturday
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A BRITISH teacher was yesterday sentenced to five years and six months in jail for having sex with a 15-year-old pupil and running off with her to France, sparking an international manhunt.
Jeremy Forrest, a married 30-year-old mathematics teacher, was convicted on Thursday of abducting the girl, and yesterday pleaded guilty to five further counts of sexual activity with a child.
He was not originally charged with sex offenses for legal reasons linked to his extradition from France, but he admitted the new charges when they were put to him at Lewes Crown Court in southeast England.
Judge Michael Lawson, sentencing Forrest to four and a half years for the charges of sexual activity with a child and one year for the abduction charge, told him his behavior had inflicted great damage.
He said: "Your behavior in this period has been motivated by self-interest and has hurt and damaged many people - her family, your family, staff and pupils at the school and respect for teachers everywhere.
"It has damaged you too but that was something you were prepared to risk. You now have to pay that price."
The judge added: "It was your duty as a teacher to stop her infatuation, not to fuel it.
"Your research into what might happen to you if you were caught is proof of the deliberate nature of your behavior."
When Forrest was convicted of abduction on Thursday after a two-week trial, he had told the girl "I love you" as he was led from the court.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, burst into tears and told him: "I'm sorry."
The British press reported the girl, who is now 16, has vowed to wait for Forrest to serve his sentence so they can resume their relationship.
Prosecutors had labeled him a pedophile who had groomed a vulnerable girl, first kissing her when she was 14. They said he "grossly abused" the trust placed in him as her teacher.
The court heard Forrest told her he was unhappily married.
(AFP)
Jeremy Forrest, a married 30-year-old mathematics teacher, was convicted on Thursday of abducting the girl, and yesterday pleaded guilty to five further counts of sexual activity with a child.
He was not originally charged with sex offenses for legal reasons linked to his extradition from France, but he admitted the new charges when they were put to him at Lewes Crown Court in southeast England.
Judge Michael Lawson, sentencing Forrest to four and a half years for the charges of sexual activity with a child and one year for the abduction charge, told him his behavior had inflicted great damage.
He said: "Your behavior in this period has been motivated by self-interest and has hurt and damaged many people - her family, your family, staff and pupils at the school and respect for teachers everywhere.
"It has damaged you too but that was something you were prepared to risk. You now have to pay that price."
The judge added: "It was your duty as a teacher to stop her infatuation, not to fuel it.
"Your research into what might happen to you if you were caught is proof of the deliberate nature of your behavior."
When Forrest was convicted of abduction on Thursday after a two-week trial, he had told the girl "I love you" as he was led from the court.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, burst into tears and told him: "I'm sorry."
The British press reported the girl, who is now 16, has vowed to wait for Forrest to serve his sentence so they can resume their relationship.
Prosecutors had labeled him a pedophile who had groomed a vulnerable girl, first kissing her when she was 14. They said he "grossly abused" the trust placed in him as her teacher.
The court heard Forrest told her he was unhappily married.
(AFP)
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