THE family of a Scots teacher who groomed a 15-year-old pupil for sex and then abducted her have called for a full examination of the case after he was jailed for five-and-a-half years.

While Jeremy Forrest's relatives said he was "very sorry" for his actions, they also said there were other factors that needed investigation, such as the failure to act effectively on early warnings about the relationship.

During the court case it emerged Forrest, who is originally from Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, was able to continue seeing the girl despite being warned by staff at Bishop Bell Church of England School in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Police were not alerted until seven months after concerns about a relationship first emerged but officers still did not question the teacher.

Forrest, who took the pupil to France to avoid arrest, pleaded guilty to five charges of sexual activity with a child yesterday at Lewes Crown Court.

Initially, the 30-year-old maths teacher had not been charged with sex offences for legal reasons linked to his extradition, but he admitted the offences a day after a jury had taken less than two hours to convict him of child abduction following an eight-day trial.

Forrest had originally been extradited on a child abduction charge as French police had evidence of this offence alone during the legal process.

UK police sought to add the five specimen sexual offence charges but needed permission from the Bordeaux court that approved the extradition.

Forrest had hoped to rely on the defence that in France the age of consent is 15, preventing extradition on the basis of an act that wasn't a crime there.

This changed yesterday when Forrest waived his rights under the extradition treaty, enabling the charges to be laid.

Judge Michael Lawson QC sentenced Forrest to four-and-a-half years for five offences of sex with a child and one year for child abduction, to run consecutively.

He was also banned for life from working with children and having unsupervised contact with them.

Judge Lawson told Forrest: "Your behaviour 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."

Forrest befriended his "vulnerable" victim when she was just 14 and had turned to him with personal problems. She was 15 when he started having sex with her.

Forrest would pick the girl up and they would have sex in his car, in hotels and at his marital home. He also sent her indecent images of himself.

Police were finally alerted on September 14, 2012, seven months after concerns had first been raised, prompting a joint strategy meeting four days later with officers, the school and education officials.

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.

Forrest, of Petts Wood, Kent, booked them on a cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais the following day, and they spent seven days on the run in France.

After sentencing yesterday, Forrest's family said in a statement: "This is a sorry episode for all concerned and Jeremy is very sorry for his actions. Despite the verdict and today's sentence, there are many factors in this case which need to be examined and addressed, including the failure to properly act on early warnings."

The court heard how Forrest's young victim has fallen out with her mother and left home two months ago.

In an impact statement, her mother said the teacher had "robbed her daughter of her childhood".

She added: "I feel the [daughter] I knew is dead and it upsets me beyond words. I feel like I have failed as a parent as I cannot understand how someone could do this to my child and I had no idea."