The authorities failed to act to end Jeremy Forrest's relationship with his besotted teenage pupil despite warning signs - including public Twitter messages between the pair.

And the school where Forrest taught has come under the spotlight before after two men linked to it were jailed for separate child sex offences.

Now Forrest's case has prompted campaigners to ask why he was not suspended months earlier from the 1,040-pupil Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, where he taught maths.

Forrest was spoken to by senior colleagues after gossip emerged that he and the girl, then aged 14, held hands on a flight from Los Angeles in February last year - seven months before they fled to France.

He denied there was anything behind the claims but more concerns were raised by staff over the following weeks.

Rather than take on board the advice to distance himself, Forrest developed contact outside school with the girl.

Twitter messages - both public and private - were exchanged and, according to the girl, when the school authorities became aware they were forced to block each other.

But Forrest used their mobile phones instead, exchanging texts.

Police were alerted on September 14 about an inappropriate relationship between them, and four days later a joint strategy meeting was held with the school and education services.

But fearing their relationship was about to be exposed, the pair fled to France on September 20.

'Take the bullet'

Child abuse campaigner Marilyn Hawes, a teacher for 25 years and founder of Enough Abuse UK, criticised the authorities for not acting on the earlier warning signs.

She said the headteacher of Bishop Bell should be sacked.

She said: "If you are not going to spend time finding out properly what your minions are doing, then you should take the bullet.

"He runs the school and calls the shots, and he can't get away from that.

"She was a 14 and 15-year-old girl.

"They get crushes on teachers, it's normal, so therefore no one is saying she's wrong but there is a line when you are educating children.

"You can't have sloppy parameters.

"Someone needs to say, 'I got it wrong, I apologise, I'm sorry, I should have been more diligent'."

Bishop Bell has faced controversy over people linked to it in the past.

Rocked

Canon Gordon Rideout, an ex-chairman of governors at the school, was jailed for 10 years in May for a catalogue of sex attacks on youngsters.

Bishop Bell, a Church of England school, has close links to the Diocese of Chichester which has been rocked by a series of historic sex scandals involving clergymen.

Rideout, a 74-year-old retired ex-Anglican priest within the diocese, abused more than a dozen vulnerable girls and boys at a now closed Barnardo's home in Crawley, West Sussex, over a four-year period.

Rideout also indecently assaulted two girls at an Army site in Middle Wallop, Hampshire.

At Lewes Crown Court, he was convicted of 34 counts of indecent assault and two counts of attempted rape on 16 children from 1962 to 1973.

Following the case, Bishop Bell executive headteacher Terry Boatwright revealed that Rideout continued on its governing body despite concerns about him being flagged up following an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check.

In a letter to parents in May, Mr Boatwright said: "In November 2009, at Canon Rideout's instigation as chair of governors, we undertook enhanced CRB checks on all our governors.

"In March 2010, we were made aware by the county council of an issue with Canon Rideout's CRB which advised us to seek further details from Sussex Police.

'Unfortunate'

"Having done that, advised by the county council and in line with its guidance to governing bodies, we assessed the risk carefully and made a decision about whether it was appropriate for Canon Rideout to continue as a governor.

"It should be made very clear that we had not been informed of any wider concerns or issues at that time by the Chichester Diocesan authority.

"The decision we made was based on the information available to us and, in that context, was appropriate.

"Indeed, our conclusion that it was appropriate for Canon Rideout to continue his role on the governing body is in line with the view taken by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, the national body responsible for judging whether people should be allowed to work with children and vulnerable adults.

"It has now become evident that, despite us informing the diocese of the CRB issue, the Diocese of Chichester did not share its concerns or information with us at that time.

"As a church school, with close links with the diocese, it is unfortunate that those wider concerns and information that it had about Canon Rideout were not shared with us.

"As soon as we became aware of actions the diocese was taking and that it did have wider concerns, we arranged for Canon Rideout to stand down from his role on the governing body."

Rideout was the latest person with links to Bishop Bell to face jail for child abuse.

'Predatory'

In 2009, supply teacher Robert Healy, then aged 27, was jailed for seven years at Lewes Crown Court after grooming two pupils on social networking site Bebo.

Healy had sex three or four times with one teenage victim after taking her back to his father's house over a period of a fortnight.

He then started a second relationship with a slightly older girl from the same school.

Jailing him, Judge Charles Kemp said his "predatory" behaviour was a "grave breach of trust'".

A safeguarding review published in April "did not find evidence of any significant or systemic failings in safeguarding" at Bishop Bell School.

The report added: "There were areas for further development and learning identified in order for the school to achieve best practice and recommendations have been made accordingly."

It said there was publicly documented concern about safeguarding management within the diocese of Chichester.

It continued: "The school has associations with senior members of the clergy, one of whom is currently awaiting trial for historical child-related sexual offences.

"In this context, the school and the diocese need to remain alert to, and keep under scrutiny, these concerns and ensure that every possible step is taken to ensure the highest level of safeguarding."

An Ofsted inspection in November 2012 found the overall effectiveness of the school to be "good" and the behaviour and safety of the pupils was "good".