Megan Stammers: school knew of concerns over teacher friendship

London: Police were informed about concerns of an inappropriate relationship between 15-year-old Megan Stammers and her married maths teacher shortly before the pair fled to France.

Officers were told last week as Bishop Bell C of E school in Eastbourne investigated suspicions over the closeness of the schoolgirl and Jeremy Forrest, 30.

Questions have been raised over how education officials dealt with the warnings.

The school was criticised as Sussex police appealed to Megan’s friends to come forward if they knew of the pair’s plans.

Releasing CCTV images of the two walking hand-in-hand aboard the Dover to Calais ferry, Chief Inspector Jason Tingley said he hoped the photographs would help the public recognise the pair. “Although they entered France, it is possible that they are elsewhere now,” he said.

The school’s headteacher, Terry Boatwright, confirmed that concerns had been raised about the relationship. “The school, in conjunction with the local authority, Megan’s parents, and the police had been addressing and investigating those concerns, in line with procedure, when this happened,” he told The Argus, the local newspaper.

It was not yet clear when the school began taking action or when and what the schoolgirl’s parents were told.

It was also unclear if Forrest had been approached by police, or suspended from his job, prior to their disappearance.

According to reports, concerns were first expressed seven months ago by other pupils to another teacher at the school after seeing the two holding hands together on a flight back from a school trip to Los Angeles in February. Megan had been receiving after-school lessons in maths since before the summer.

Megan and Forrest, an amateur musician from Ringmer, near Lewes, boarded a ferry from Dover to Calais at 9:30pm on Thursday. The pair, who are believed to have been travelling in Forrest’s black Ford Fiesta, had booked a return ticket for Sunday but did not use it.

A friend received a text on Friday from Megan saying they had arrived in France, but it was not from her phone. The incident is the second involving a teacher and pupils at the school in recent years. In 2009, a supply teacher, Robert Healy, 27, was jailed for seven years at Lewes crown court after grooming two female pupils on social networking site Bebo. Jailing him, Judge Charles Kemp said his “predatory” behaviour was a “grave breach of trust.”

A former chair of governors, Canon Gordon Rideout, 73, is due to appear at crown court next month charged with 38 child sex offences over an 11-year period from 1962. The school has previously acknowledged the links but said he was not a member of staff and the allegations were historical and unrelated to the school.

East Sussex county council refused to give further details of the investigation into Megan’s case because it was ongoing.

Lucy Duckworth, from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said she has had concerns for some time over the school’s safeguarding policy. “Policies are still not in place to foster a culture where safeguarding is a priority as it should be in any institution where adults act in loco parentis,” she told the BBC.

However, Boatwright said: “Bishop Bell School has a robust safeguarding policy, takes safeguarding very seriously and the effectiveness of its safeguarding procedures is rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.”

The local MP, the Liberal Democrat Stephen Lloyd, defended the school, saying its inquiries into the concerns raised about Megan and Forrest would have been conducted in an “exemplary manner.”

Appealing to the schoolgirl’s friends, Chief Inspector Tingley said they should not feel scared of divulging information. “We do know that [Megan] has spoken about perhaps going somewhere but we just need to get really into the specific detail of that,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

One 15-year-old friend of Megan told the Daily Mail other pupils were aware of the relationship: “They would always text each other. He would send her messages saying things like “I miss you” and “I can’t wait to hug you.”

“We are really angry the school did not do enough to protect Megan. And now no one knows where she is or if she’s coming back.”I don’t know how it all started with Mr Forrest but to begin with she was really excited about it.

“She would tweet about being in love and show us his texts. But after it was reported she stopped and then deleted her Twitter account. She never spoke about it after that and she didn’t tell any of us that she was leaving. She probably knew we would stop her.”

The child abuse campaigner Marilyn Hawes, a teacher for 25 years, said as soon as there were suspicions, Forrest should have been suspended. The founder of Enough Abuse said: “Why hasn’t someone put their hands up and said, “I’m culpable and I’m negligent?” They got it wrong. Where was the remit of care from other staff saying be careful with this one?

“The headteacher has a duty of care and that has not been delivered.”

A dedicated telephone number and text number which can be used from abroad have been set up. They are 00 44 1273 475432 or text +447786 208090.