Jeremy Forrest: 'Paedophile' behind caring persona

But his decision to flee to France unmasked him as a "paedophile" and "self-centred coward", whose grooming of one of his pupils broke the trust of everyone around him.

Forrest was described by friends and family as a ''talented and inspirational'' teacher who ''cared for others'', while peers viewed him as gifted.

Maths teacher Forrest was praised by former colleague Benedict Beaumont, a former ICT teacher at Bishop Bell School, who described him as "one of the most gifted teachers that I have ever met".

''In my opinion, one of the reasons that he was such a good teacher was that he cared deeply about the welfare of all his pupils.

''He worked ceaselessly to ensure that all pupils, whether high achievers or those who struggled, attained the highest grades possible.''

The 30-year-old guitar player, who was said to be a member of a group called The Simpletons, married wife Emily in Brighton in 2011.

To many, he appeared the epitome of a good teacher and family man.

But behind closed doors, he and his wife were struggling with an unhappy marriage.

Through his music - the guitarist adopted the stage name Jeremy Ayre - Forrest adopted a different persona, writing lyrics for his teenage victim and posting videos of himself online.

Intense

In a blog written under the name Jeremy Ayre, posted on May 19, he appeared every inch the rock star, heading the diatribe "You hit me just like heroin''.

''The last two weeks have been pretty intense, in both a good and a bad way!!!," he wrote.

''I'll touch on the bad, although it will have to be a bit vague to be public-ally digestible, but have lots of positive music related s*** to shoot...

''About a week ago I had a bit of a moral dilemma to deal with, both internally and externally. And the over-riding question it left me with was this: 'How do we, and how should we, define what is right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable???'

''I came to a few different conclusions, mainly that actually we get a lot of things wrong, but at the end of the day I was satisfied that if you can look at yourself in the mirror and know that, under all the front, that you are a good person, that should have faith in your own judgment.

''That's some philosophical gold for you there!!!''

Friends described how he had become more withdrawn after his marriage.

Dale Ives-Routleff, who was Forrest's best man, said in Christmas 2011 his friend was "not his usual self and even more withdrawn than he had been previously".

''This concerned me greatly and when pressed he effectively broke down and admitted he was very unhappy at home and described his home/married life as 'miserable, lonely and depressing'.''

Forrest's wife said their marriage had been in trouble as he became more and more distant, but said in 2012, to her surprise, he had raised the subject of them having children.

Exposed

When she discovered Twitter messages between him and a pupil, she warned him about his behaviour, but little did she know that he would start a sexual relationship with the teenager, meeting up outside school, staying in hotels, and even inviting the girl to their home.

Fellow teachers who warned Forrest about the girl's crush were fooled as well, as he denied there was anything going on between them, even becoming upset at rumours circulating about them.

But when the two disappeared, the teacher's lies were exposed.

Forrest's friends and family described him as a man whose caring nature had got him into trouble.

Born in Scotland on June 25, 1982, Jeremy Ayre Forrest grew up with his sister Carrie and younger brother Thomas.

He had been interested in being a teacher since his mid-teens which he went on to study for at university.

He began his career as a newly-qualified maths teacher at Bishop Justus CE Secondary School in Bromley, Kent.

Fellow teacher Susan Pinder, now retired, said: "Jeremy worked very hard with all students throughout his time at Bishop Justus, especially those who were less motivated.

"Jeremy achieved the highest value-added results for a teacher with the department."

Forrest also used his music skills to interact with the students and he set up a 'Rock School' club.

Mrs Pinder said: "There can be a fine line between over-familiarity when students and staff work so closely together, however the respect that the students had for Jeremy was obvious, when, without hesitation in the class setting, they would call him Mr Forrest."

Music blog

Forrest met his wife-to-be in March 2007 and they became engaged in October 2009 when he proposed to her on a plane as they flew on holiday to Portugal.

They moved to their home in Ringmer in East Sussex in February 2009 and married in April 2011.

Mrs Forrest, a keen photographer, described how they had a similar interest in rock music and she helped him set up his music blog and designed album covers for him.

Forrest would appear under his stage name Jeremy Ayre at open-mic nights in the Brighton area.

And it was this interest in rock music, including bands such as Nirvana, that brought him closer to his victim. They started by sharing Twitter messages about their love of music.

After moving to Ringmer, Forrest found a new position at Bishop Bell CE School in Eastbourne, where he once again flourished in his job.

And again he was very popular with the pupils.

One boy said: "Quite a lot of people in my class and other people thought of him more as a friend rather than a teacher. I liked him."

But Mrs Forrest, now 32, described in court how their relationship began to break down at about the same time that her husband got closer to the schoolgirl at the end of 2011 and early 2012.

She described how he started staying out at night without letting her know and lying about messages he received from the girl on his phone.

They also stopped having sex, she told the court.

'Withdrawn'

The court heard that Mrs Forrest had been prescribed with anti-depressants for depression and received counselling at a Priory Clinic.

Forrest's sister Carrie Hanspaul told the court that he became "withdrawn" as the marriage broke down.

She said in a character reference read to court: "He is very good-natured and extremely mild-mannered.

"He never has a bad word to say about anyone and always strives to do whatever he can to help other people and care for them.

"Unfortunately I believe this has contributed to his recent actions.

"Jeremy has been in a very difficult relationship for the last six years but did not want to worry any of his family, especially our parents, with his problems.

"Instead he withdrew more and more and tried to deal with the issues himself.

"I believe he became more and more depressed."

But Richard Barton, prosecuting the case, said that Forrest had used his "caring" personality to "groom" the schoolgirl.

He said an "appropriate label" for him would be "paedophile".

He said that Forrest's "young-looking and petite" wife shared some of the girl's vulnerable attributes.

He said: "What is it that Jeremy Forrest finds attractive about young-looking vulnerable women?

"There is a word for it, it's called grooming - being caring, being kind, being close, gaining confidence, gaining the trust of that person and then you can do what you want to do with them."