A PAEDOPHILE teacher who ran away with a schoolgirl faces being sent back to prison after it was claimed he has been in contact with his victim.

Jeremy Forrest was jailed for five and a half years in June 2013 for child abduction and five charges of sexual activity with a child.

He was released in July last year on licence on the condition he did not contact his victim, who was just 15 at the time.

But in an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, the girl, whose identity is protected, said the pair had been in touch on Facebook.

She wrote: “Since Jeremy’s release from prison, we have only spoken once, about a year ago, after I messaged a Facebook account with his name that came up as a suggested friend.

“He sounded the same and, importantly, happy – he even had a new girlfriend.”

The Ministry of Justice directed The Argus to Kent Police, where Forrest is believed to live.

A spokeswoman said the force would not discuss individual cases until a person was charged.

Teacher Forrest was 31 at time and worked at Bishop Bell Church of England school in Eastbourne.

He had got to know the girl on a school trip and they began a relationship. When the police became aware they were exchanging text messages, Forrest drove her to Dover, where they boarded a ferry for France.

The girl, now 19, said: “Of course we knew it was illegal for us to be together but we genuinely believed that if we stuck it out for a tricky few years, eventually we could return home and people would accept our relationship.”

“We were oblivious to the media frenzy back home, to the headlines screeching ‘Paedophile teacher abducts innocent schoolgirl’.”

The pair were found after a week and Forrest was charged and went on to face trial.

She said: “Right up until the very last moment I thought things might be OK and that people would understand how we’d fallen in love, but when he was found guilty of child abduction and sex with a minor, I broke down in the dock beside his family. Do I regret my relationship with Jeremy? I can’t say I do, but I now recognise it for what it was: a dangerous infatuation.”