A Scottish teacher jailed for abducting his 15-year-old pupil to France could face prison time after his victim revealed that he contacted her on Facebook.
Aberdeenshire born Jeremy Forrest sparked an international manhunt when he fled to France with a 15-year-old pupil, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in 2012.
His victim, has spoken out for the first time about their relationship and the events that led to his arrest and trial.
She also revealed to Cosmopolitan that Jeremy attempted to contact her on social media networking site Facebook after his release from prison.
She said: "Since Jeremy’s release from prison, we have only spoken once, about a year ago, after I messaged a Facebook account with his name that came up as a suggested friend."
"He sounded the same and, importantly, happy – he even had a new girlfriend."
The message exchange may prompt an investigation as it breaches a licence that ordered Jeremy not to have contact with her.
Forrest, originally from Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, was a married maths teacher at Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, when he began a sexual relationship with one of his students.
He was convicted for five-and-a-half years and was released from prison two years ago.
The 15-year-old revealed the pair got close on a school trip to the USA when she was just 14. The pair began exchanging messages on Twitter before starting to meet up regularly outside of school.
The girl, referred to as Gemma for legal reasons, had sex with the maths teacher who she thought of as her boyfriend, after her 15th birthday.
The pair took a ferry to France under false names in a bid to set up a new life.
Forrest was spotted in Bordeaux and arrested eight days later.
She said: "Of course we knew it was illegal for us to be together, but we genuinely believed that if we stuck it out for a tricky few years, eventually we could return home and people would accept our relationship."
"Right up until the very last moment I thought things might be OK, and that people would understand how we’d fallen in love, but when he was found guilty of child abduction and sex with a minor, I broke down in the dock beside his family."
The pair had not seen each other since 2013 at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex when she was forced to give evidence against Jeremy during the trial.
Speaking of their relationship Gemma* revealed she never felt like a victim and she had encouraged his advances.
She said: "I’m still asking myself that now. All I know is, at the time, it didn’t feel that way; it was me who followed Jeremy on Twitter and I welcomed the advances he made in response."
Since his release Jeremy has reinvented himself and found a new relationship, despite claims he would return to the girl after his release.
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