Jeremy Forrest: Teacher went to great lengths to avoid capture

They dyed their hair, gave themselves false names on CVs to try to get work and Forrest, 30, tossed his mobile phone into the English Channel to prevent its signal betraying their whereabouts.

Back home in Sussex, as the hours turned to days without sight or sound of them, there was a palpable sense of fear about the possible outcome.

The international hunt became public knowledge with a police appeal when British officers disclosed that a schoolgirl was believed to have fled to France with a man known to her.

Concern grew when return ferry tickets booked for two days later, September 23, were not used and it was disclosed that the last message apparently from the girl to one of her friends did not come from her own mobile phone.

Interpol, the UK Border Agency, the British Embassy in France and the French authorities were drafted in to help trace the girl as frantic appeals by family and friends were posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Meanwhile back home, as the huge search unfolded, was Forrest's jilted wife Emily.

The beginnings of the relationship can be traced back to the half-term holidays in February last year when Forrest and the girl were spotted holding hands on a flight from Los Angeles following a school trip.

The hand holding was said to have been because the girl was a nervous flyer but it did not stop gossip circulating at their school, Bishop Bell in Eastbourne.

Flirtatious

Scots-born Forrest, a keen musician with the stage name Jeremy Ayre, was spoken to by a senior colleague after the trip and advised to keep his distance.

But his wise counsel was not heeded and as the weeks passed Forrest and the teenager started tweeting each other, including private messages which became more flirtatious.

Further questions by the school about possible inappropriate contact were met with firm denials from Forrest and the girl. In the end, Forrest and the teenager were told to block each other online.

To avoid uncomfortable questions, Forrest gave out his mobile phone number, leading to them texting regularly.

At the time, Forrest's marriage was in crisis and as time passed he made no secret of that to the girl, telling her he and his wife had separated twice and that he stopped wearing his wedding ring.

Forrest and the pupil took the next step along the path to a full relationship with their first kiss in a classroom when she was aged 14. It was around this same time that they professed love for each other.

The girl, now 16, said in a police interview: "It got to the point where there was only so much of a friendship you could have before it developed into something else.''

As the relationship turned sexual two months later, after she turned 15, the girl said Forrest knew what the consequences would be for him, and he knew he could face prison.

So concerned was he about that prospect, he researched how long he could face behind bars for having a sexual relationship with a child. But according to the girl, it was a "risk he was willing to take".

The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said that as a couple they "made each other happy" and "nothing else mattered''. And so their relationship continued into the summer holidays.

'Boyfriend'

He took her for sex in a spare room in the marital home in Ringmer, in his car and in hotels, including a Premier Inn in Polegate and the White Hart across the road from the crown court where he stood trial.

During these overnight stays, the girl would tell her mother she was at a friend's. The girl said they referred to each other as "boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend".

But soon Forrest and the girl would come to the attention of the police. A tip-off was made to officers about their inappropriate relationship and the fact intimate pictures were sent between them.

At a joint meeting between police, education officials and the school on September 18, it was decided that the girl should be asked about the allegations.

The following day, a police officer and a social worker visited her home while the girl was still at school. Her mother immediately called her to return home.

Sensing that the visit was to do with her relationship with Forrest, the girl went to see him in class. When she returned home she denied everything to the police, saying later that she "panicked" and did not want to get Forrest into trouble.

That night, as police took away her mobile phone for analysis, the girl packed her bag. She told police in interview later: "I wanted to leave because I didn't want to face my mum when she found out."

Meanwhile the pressure appeared to be getting to Forrest too. During a meal that same night at a restaurant in Lewes with his wife he seemed distracted and distant.

Ferry

He told her he wanted to quit teaching and that he had a lot of things going on. When pressed by Mrs Forrest, he replied: "Please don't push it. I'm not talking about it. Stop now."

The next day, September 20, Forrest did not go to school. The girl, who did attend morning class, called him at lunchtime and told him her phone was seized by police the evening before.

"That's when we seriously, for the first time, talked about running away," she said.

In a second phone call, she said Forrest told her that he had booked a ferry to France and to meet him at a garage near her house after school.

She told her mother she was going to stay overnight at a friend's but then feigned illness and said she was going home. She actually went to meet Forrest.

To explain his absence, Forrest told his wife in texts that he had a class for his masters degree in London and would be spending the weekend at a friend's home.

Automatic number plate recognition cameras caught Forrest's black Ford Fiesta heading across Sussex into Kent. In an effort to confuse any attempt to find them, the girl called a friend, saying: "Me and Jezz are going north."

Hand in hand and arm in arm, the pair were then caught on CCTV cameras boarding the 9.20pm Dover to Calais Spirit of France ferry.

But before they stepped aboard, Forrest jotted down the numbers of his family, including his parents Jim and Julie, then tossed his mobile phone into the sea.

Scared

No passport checks were carried out on the girl at the Port of Dover and after they boarded the ferry the atmosphere between the pair became more relaxed.

From Calais they drove to Paris and then caught a taxi to Bordeaux, leaving the car parked near Gard du Nord railway station. In Bordeaux they booked into the first of two hotels during their time on the run.

Over the coming days they wrote journals, produced false CVs with Forrest claiming to be "Jack Dean" and the girl also using an alias. With a guitar he took with him, Forrest also busked in the south western port city.

On a visit to an internet cafe, Forrest logged on to a local newspaper website and saw that their disappearance was the most-read story on it.

"That scared us," the girl said.

"We did speak about whether it was national but I said no it wouldn't be because people go missing all the time, so it was hard to tell how and why it would make the news."

Up until seeing the news report, Forrest was relaxed but then he tensed up.

The girl, in a video police interview, said: "He said, 'I'm going to prison. I'm going to get caught. I'm not going to see you'. He was worried that his family would disown him and that friends wouldn't support him. I said, 'they will be fine, they will support you'."

As the hunt intensified, an online bucket list - a compilation of goals someone wants to achieve before they die - was uncovered in which the girl had crossed out "fall in love" and "have someone write a song about me".

'Nagging sense'

The anguish felt by her family was apparent at a news conference in which her mother implored her daughter to come home.

She said: "Sweetheart, I don't care what you've done or why, I just want you home."

The following day, pictures of Forrest and the girl on board the ferry were released to the media amid fears that they could be anywhere.

In truth, they were still in France but their time on the run was about to come to an abrupt end with the help of Alison Cummins, owner of the HMS Victory bar in Bordeaux.

Having been handed a CV by Forrest, she told him she would let him know if any jobs cropped up. The next day she saw him and the girl and had a "nagging sense" that she had seen her before.

Her suspicions proved right when she logged on to The Guardian website and came across a report into the disappearance of Forrest and the girl.

She used the number contained within the report to call Sussex Police, prompting officers to travel to Bordeaux.

Police asked Ms Cummins to tell a "white lie" and invite Forrest in for a trial shift and that he must also bring the girl.

As it turned out, police intercepted the pair in the street as they were en route to the bar, leaving them in shock. As they were held, they mouthed "I love you" at each other.